Need Advice on Oligoclonal Bands
 

First Post! I've had some trouble finding information regarding OCB's.
To give you a brief history, I was first suspected of MS over 15 years ago (numbness and tingling). Scans reveled at that time that there were several lesions. Over the following years I have had other sets of scans done on my Brain and Spinal area reveling other lesions.
Recently I had a lumbar puncture done and the results were that I had 16 bands that were unique to the CSF (none in the serum / blood). IgG index was elevated as well. I do have a Dx for MS and Copaxone is being started in the next few days.
My question: what does the number of unique band mean? Is it of any prognostic value? - from what I've been able to research, 16 unique OCB's is alot!
Kinda worried about that information. Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

Maybe it's a marker that indicates that there was inflammation in the CSF. Other things can cause that too

Oh! And welcome :)

Hi chadntx

I can not comment on the clinical significance of that finding, but with my immunologist hat on:

Antibodies are made by white blood cells called plasma cells. Each clone of plasma cells makes one kind of antibody - a monoclonal antibody. In some cancers (for example, multiple myeloma and plasmacytomas) a single clone of plasma cells expands, leading to high levels of a monoclonal antibody ("1 band") - this can be important in diagnosis.

In other situations a few clones of plasma cells will expand; this is called an oligoclonal response. It seems that this has happened to you - high levels of a few different antibodies are present, one from each clone - "16 bands".

I hope that this information helps you to ask your clinical care team informed questions.

It is used to assist with diagnosis but does not signify severity of the disease. And to really drive us nuts, you can be diagnosed without bands since its only seen in approximately 85% of patients with MS. So I wouldn't worry to much over having 16, even though the number is unusual.

Other than that, welcome to the club :D

Welcome to NeuroTalk Chad..:)

I agree with, Starznight:
My Neurologist had told me you can have numerous o-bands. I would not put too much thought or worry into the amount of o-bands.