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Something for "Lumpers" and "Splitters"

Elliot M. Frohman, MD, PhD; Douglas Kerr, MD, PhD

Arch Neurol. 2007;64(6):903-905.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

In the current "Controversies in Neurology" series, the contentious issue arises as to whether we have sufficient evidence to designate neuromyelitis optica (NMO) (Devic disease) as a disease entity distinct from multiple sclerosis (MS).^1-2 As with many such debates, there will be "lumpers" (similar disorders should be characterized under a common rubric) and "splitters" (similarly appearing disorders should be differentiated on a pathophysiologic, genetic, or phenotypic basis).

LUMPING AND SPLITTING

In the case of MS, lumping and splitting has not been a particularly contemporary or solely intellectual exercise. It has instead signified the productive process that has produced the current principles for codifying the disease into the now accepted clinical subtypes of relapsing-remitting, secondary progressive, progressive-relapsing, and primary progressive forms. On a histopathological type of splitting, Lucchinetti and colleagues³ have advanced the field by proposing to recognize multiple (perhaps 4, more or less) distinct . . . [Full Text of this Article]

MS VS NMO: DISTINCTIONS AND SIMILARITIES

UTILITY OF THE NMO-IgG ANTIBODY

THE NMO-IgG ANTIBODY AND PATHOGENICITY

DO MS AND NMO DISPLAY DIFFERENTIAL TREATMENT RESPONSIVENESS?

NMO AND MS: LUMP IT OR SPLIT IT?

AUTHOR INFORMATION
Author Affiliations: Departments of Neurology and Ophthalmology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas (Dr Frohman); and Department of Neurology, Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, Md (Dr Kerr).

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