Experts Say 20% of MS Diagnoses Are Wrong as 2025 Criteria Tighten Lesion Rules
Updated
Updated · CBS New York · Oct 20
Experts Say 20% of MS Diagnoses Are Wrong as 2025 Criteria Tighten Lesion Rules
3 articles · Updated · CBS New York · Oct 20
Summary
15% to 20% of people diagnosed with multiple sclerosis are later found not to have it, neurologists told CBS News, underscoring a diagnostic problem highlighted after Christina Applegate said she had been misdiagnosed.
Brain lesions often drive the error: MRI abnormalities linked to high blood pressure, smoking or migraines can be mistaken for MS, while the disease's broad symptom range leaves no single test to confirm it.
Second opinions often uncover the problem when symptoms fail to improve, prompting advanced MRI sequences, spinal MRI or spinal fluid analysis to distinguish MS from look-alike conditions.
2025 diagnostic criteria were designed to reduce those mistakes by applying stricter standards to lesion interpretation, while specialists say patients should seek MS experts because a wrong diagnosis can delay finding autoimmune disease, fibromyalgia, migraine or other causes.