LATHAM — Joseph Slezak, 69, of Amsterdam, was working as a truck driver in 1996 when he developed double vision in his right eye.

When an MRI showed plaque on his brain and spinal cord, doctors diagnosed multiple sclerosis.

Multiple sclerosis is a disease that attacks the central nervous system and interferes with the brain’s ability to send and receive messages. It’s called multiple because more than one area of the brain and spinal cord can be affected. It’s called sclerosis because MS causes brain and nerve tissue to become scarred.

“I get down at times, but then I think about people who can’t walk at all,” said Slezak, who uses a cane or a walker, and used to travel to Bennington, Vt., for treatment. “There are a lot of people worse off than me. I still see the glass half full.”

This January, the Multiple Sclerosis Center of Northeastern New York, 1205 Troy-Schenectady Road, Suite 105, Latham, began seeing people with all forms of MS in an effort to help patients fight the often debilitating disease in one location.

Body attacking itself

“Multiple sclerosis is an autoimmune disease in that the body attacks itself,” said Dr. Keith Edwards, director, who works at the Center two days a week. “But we don’t know why that is.”

A board-certified neurologist, Edwards is an assistant clinical professor at Harvard Medical School and consulting neurologist at the Department of Neurology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. He has contributed to many national and international meeting presentations in the field of MS, has published numerous articles about MS, and has been involved with evaluation, treatment and research about the disease for more than 30 years.

Edwards said the center is involved with several studies of new drugs that help both relapsing-remitting MS and progressive MS, including one treatment that may help promote recovery in MS patients — the first of its type of medication.

“Our goal is to prevent further disability, improve quality of life and try to arrest the progression of MS even in advanced cases,” said Edwards.

The first line of treatments to treat MS include medications designed to slow down the progression of the disease. Those include Avonex, Betaseron, Copaxone and Rebif.

For someone who has a more aggressive course, Edwards said, he may start a person on Tysabri, a monoclonal antibody, designed to target the T-cells that have gone wrong that triggers the MS attack.

Used by itself with no other drugs, it is given once a month intravenously at an infusion center. The Multiple Sclerosis Center of Northeast New York is the only center in the Capital Region using the drug.

While some doctors who treat progressive multiple sclerosis say there is no treatment, Edwards disagrees.

“Some cases are more difficult to treat than others, just as some cancers are more difficult to treat,” he said. “There may not be a cure but there is always a treatment. Not everyone is successful, but we always try.”

Messages get lost

Multiple sclerosis affects the central nervous system consisting of the brain, spinal cord and the optic nerves. A fatty tissue called myelin surrounds and protects the nerve fibers of the central nervous system. In MS, myelin is lost in multiple areas. Body functions become uncontrolled because messages don’t get through properly.

While the cause of MS is unknown, and there is no cure, Edwards said: “We know it’s a complex interaction among three factors. There’s a hereditary factor, an environmental factor and there is probably an infectious factor — some virus that triggers the other factors.”

Symptoms of MS vary from

person to person and from time

to time in the same person.

Range of symptoms

Symptoms can be mild or severe. They may include muscle stiffness or spasms, vision loss or double vision, weakness or unusual tiredness, numbness and tingling, loss of balance, shaking, poor coordination, loss of bladder or bowel control, problems with memory and concentration, speech problems and partial or complete paralysis of any part of the body.

Because no single test can diagnose MS, several tests and procedures are needed. These are likely to include: a medical history, a neurological exam, an MRI and studies that measure the response of the central nervous system to specific kinds of visual stimulation.

Other tests less commonly used are a lumbar puncture or spinal tap to look at the composition of the fluid that surrounds the spinal cord and assessment of cognitive or brain function.

Many people go through periods of exacerbation. These are acute attacks also called relapses, when new symptoms appear or existing symptoms become more severe. Exacerbations are usually followed by remissions, which may bring you back to your pre-relapse level or may leave you with some remaining disability. This form of MS is called relapsing-remitting MS.

Some people have few or no severe attacks but instead experience slow but steady worsening of symptoms and disability over time. This form is called primary-progressive MS. Or this steady pattern can follow an earlier period of relapsing-remitting MS. This is called secondary-progressive MS.

Sometimes, physical therapy can be used to help with aches and pains. In other cases where pain and spasticity are involved, injections of botox, nerve blocks and other medications may be used.

“As much as possible we like to treat the underlying disease so if someone is having an acute attack or relapse, the standard of care is intravenous methylprednisolone, a corticosteroid drug,” said Edwards.

Aggressive treatment

Some people also improve with chemotherapy drugs such as cytoxin, used widely in autoimmune disorders like MS.

“You don’t want to use toxic drugs for benign disease, and that’s true for cancer, too,” said Edwards. “But if you have an aggressive disease that is going to be disabling and likely shorten your life, then you have to use stronger treatments.”

Despite the fact that they do not feel well, many people with MS look well.

That’s where going to MS support groups and talking to other people who have the disease, can be helpful, said Edwards.

The rest of the staff at the Center includes Dr. Craig Senzon, associate director; Dr. Traci DePalma, Dr. Barbara Rosenthal and psychologist William Goodman.

Despite his difficulty walking, Slezak continues to work at his family business, Slezak Petroleum Products.

“I mostly do paperwork in the office now instead of driving a truck,” he said.

Slezak has a progressive form of the disease and has tried several medications and is currently enrolled in a study.

On a recent afternoon, Slezak told Edwards he thinks he took too high of a dosage of the study medication because he felt weaker than usual.

“Doctor Edwards has been trying different things, but we just haven’t hit that magic bullet yet,” said Slezak, who was also diagnosed with prostate cancer last year.

“Coming here is really good because it’s not that far, and it’s easily accessible,” said Slezak. “And the doctors here don’t give up on anybody. I know there is not cure for this, but I’m hoping that I can reduce the spasticity. And I know I might not get help from this study I’m in, but I might benefit other people. I’m for helping anybody.”