Highlights of the Second International Conference on MS, May 2003, Dubrovnik, Croatia

The conference was organized by Professors Vesna Brinar of the Faculty of Medicine, University of Zagreb, Croatia and Charles Poser of the Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA. It was attended by almost 200 neurologists from as far afield as South Africa and Russia. The major topics to be explored were: the natural history of multiple sclerosis (MS); development of diagnostic criteria; genetics with special emphasis on the 'MS trait'; pathogenesis with emphasis on repair; nomenclature of MS and its 'variants'; differentiation between MS and disseminated encephalomyelitis; diagnostic and therapeutic dilemmas resulting from MRI abnormalities in asymptomatic people; various treatments; and a general critique of therapeutic trials.