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Mayo Clinic Laboratories > Neurology > Demyelinating disease

Demyelinating disease

Video Myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein antibody-associated disease (MOGAD)
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Accurate testing to differentiate conditions

Mayo Clinic Laboratories offers testing to diagnose a range of demyelinating diseases, from classic multiple sclerosis (MS) to atypical MS, AQP4/MOG-associated disorders, and spinal cord disorders. Sensitive and specific testing enables physicians to differentiate between conditions with often overlapping symptoms, allowing them to start interventions and therapies earlier — when they are most beneficial to patients.

Autoimmune myelopathy Autoimmune myelopathy
Autoimmune myelopathy

Our autoimmune myelopathy evaluation can assist in the diagnosis and aid distinction from other causes of myelopathy. Testing includes a novel astrocytic autoantibody, glial fibrillary acidic protein, which has been described by Mayo Clinic as a biomarker of a relapsing autoimmune meningoencephalomyelitis.

CNS demyelinating disease CNS demyelinating disease
CNS demyelinating disease

Immune-mediated CNS disorders present with similar clinical and radiologic features as multiple sclerosis. Our unique evaluation to diagnose CNS demyelinating disease uses a fluorescence-activated cell sorting live cell-binding assay to detect the two most common antibodies linked to the harmful autoimmune response.

Multiple sclerosis Multiple sclerosis
Multiple sclerosis

Our profile can assist in the diagnosis of MS by measuring kappa immunoglobin light chains in cerebral spinal fluid with a reflex, if positive, to oligoclonal banding. This automated assay is objective, standardized, and delivers precision results that set patients on the correct diagnostic pathway.

Similar characteristics. Different treatments.

The clinical and radiologic features of neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder (NMOSD), myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein (MOG-IgG) associated disease (MOGAD), and MS are similar. However, the appropriate treatments for MOGAD and NMOSD are significantly different than for MS.

  • MS is treated by immunomodulation therapy, which may worsen NMOSD.
  • NMOSD and MOGAD are treated by immunosuppressant therapy.

An accurate diagnosis of these diseases is critical for physicians and their patients.

“The value of better testing is translated into better answers from the lab to providers and to patients, and to all clients of the laboratory.”

Maria Alice Willrich, Ph.D., co-director, Antibody Immunology, Protein Immunology, and Clinical Mass Spectrometry laboratories

News and updates

The latest

Myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein antibody-associated disease (MOGAD): Diagnostic criteria featured image
Myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein antibody-associated disease (MOGAD): Diagnostic criteria

This microlearning reviews myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein antibody-associated disease (MOGAD), with a focus on the 2023 International MOGAD Panel diagnostic criteria.

Learn more
Optic Neuritis in the Era of Biomarkers

Antibodies to aquaporin-4 and myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein (MOG) are recently described biomarkers seen in a subset of atypical optic neuritis which have revolutionized our understanding of the condition. In this “Hot Topic,” my colleague, Dr. John Chen, will review these advances and how they impact the clinical care of our patients with optic neuritis.

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