Multiple System Atrophy Diagnosis

At this time, there are no specific symptoms, blood tests or imaging studies that distinguish MSA. Instead, doctors rely on a combination of symptom history, physical examination, and laboratory tests to evaluate the motor system, coordination, and autonomic function to arrive at a probable diagnosis.

Despite the diagnostic challenge MSA poses, recent research has yielded promising results in ways that may help unravel the causes and detection of this disease. Medical technology such as functional MRI (fMRI) measures activity levels in the brain and can demonstrate areas of impaired brain function.

Additionally, by applying sensitive pattern recognition techniques to certain MRI studies, medical science is increasingly differentiating the early signs of MSA from Parkinson’s disease and other neurologic conditions with greater accuracy.

New studies are also finding that a particular type of lipid-transporting molecule important for production of myelin might be faulty in MSA patients and that evaluating this molecule, known as ABCA8, could provide a causative explanation and a screening tool for MSA.