Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Luis Compres-Brugal, MD, Director of the Neuroimmunology and Multiple Sclerosis Program at the Baptist Health Miami Neuroscience Institute, part of Baptist Health South Florida

Transcript

Luis Compres-Brugal, MD, Director of the Neuroimmunology and Multiple Sclerosis Program at the Baptist Health Miami Neuroscience Institute, part of Baptist Health South Florida · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

• 0:00
  This is Laura Dierda with the Becker's Healthcare
• 0:02
  Podcast.
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  I'm thrilled today to be joined by doctor
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  Luis Compress, director of neuroimmunology
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  and multiple sclerosis program at Baptist Health Miami
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  Neuroscience Institute, part of Baptist Health South Florida.
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  Doctor Compress, it's a pleasure to have you
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  on the podcast today.
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  Thank you for having me.
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  Absolutely. Now I'm excited to get into our
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  discussion. I know we're gonna be talking a
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  lot about
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  multiple sclerosis and and just the way it's
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  treatments moving forward. But before we do, can
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  you tell us a little bit more about
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  yourself and your background?
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  Yeah. Of course. Well, I was,
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  born and raised in Dominican Republic, and I
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  did my neurology residency in University of Cincinnati,
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  Ohio.
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  After that, I did
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  a fellowship in multiple sclerosis and neuroimmunology
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  at the University of South Florida in Tampa.
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  And, I've been, working here in Baptist since
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  then.
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  That's fantastic. And, you know, really a a
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  a great pathway into a a very important
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  service that you're providing to the community. Now
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  for listeners who may not know much about
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  multiple sclerosis,
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  what exactly is MS, and how does it
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  affect the body?
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  Yeah.
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  Basically, how I explain a very simple way
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  is that when your immune system there is
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  a glitch in your immune system. And instead
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  of fighting viruses and bacteria,
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  it start creating pockets of inflammation
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  in different parts of the brain and the
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  spinal cord,
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  in the optic nerve.
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  And depends on where the symptoms are,
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  or the lesion,
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  is, you can have symptoms.
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  Got it. That makes a lot of sense,
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  and it is helpful to understand kind of
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  where it's coming from and, just the way
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  it impacts a patient's body. Now I I'm
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  curious. When you think about the disease progression,
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  how does it continue to,
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  impact patients,
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  and and what are some early warning signs
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  or symptoms that MS
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  people,
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  who who have it should not ignore?
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  Yeah.
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  Well,
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  people that have MS and they don't know
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  they have MS,
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  and that's a very common question. What are
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  the symptoms?
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  And I divide it in nonspecific.
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  Sometimes it can be fatigue,
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  numbness here and there,
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  brain fog.
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  But more specific
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  MS symptoms are
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  neurological
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  that last more than one day, and it
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  can be
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  weakness or numbness in one side of the
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  body
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  nonstop
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  or
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  vision loss in one eye.
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  It can be double vision for,
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  like I mentioned,
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  before, for a few days.
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  But it varies a lot because it really
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  depends on where the lesion is, where there
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  is a pocket of inflammation
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  that can cause symptoms.
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  Some people may dismiss them as just being
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  normal.
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  It's just
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  let us try to figure that out. That's
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  a message I always try to transmit to
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  patient.
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  Got it. That's helpful to understand.
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  So really looking for some of those,
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  key symptoms and and keeping an eye out
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  for them. And I can imagine it's important
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  to,
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  identify them quickly and find a treatment pathway.
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  Correct.
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  And and and that's very important that you
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  mentioned that because the sooner we diagnose MS,
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  the sooner we can treat it. And the
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  sooner we treat it, we know that those
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  patients long term, they tend to do better.
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  That's helpful to understand. I'm curious, you know,
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  now that we know the early warning signs
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  that patients must pay attention to, I I
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  know for physicians and clinicians, MS can look
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  different from patient to patient. So why can
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  it sometimes be difficult to diagnose,
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  and and what should physicians know about,
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  seeing patients who might present with some of
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  these symptoms or trying to figure out what
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  exactly is going on with them?
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  Yeah. It can be very challenging to diagnose,
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  and the reason is we don't have a
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  specific test that we can get and say,
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  yes. You have MS.
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  It's not as
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  simple as, for example, diabetes or looking at
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  the cholesterol.
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  You just get a a blood test, and
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  you just see those results. With MS, it's
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  like building a puzzle.
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  And we put
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  different pieces,
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  together in trying to come up with a
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  diagnosis.
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  And one of those is, the exam that
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  we do to the patient, what the patient
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  is telling us, MRIs.
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  Sometimes we didn't need lumbar puncture. So once
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  we get all that information, we can, say,
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  okay. This
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  is MS.
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  MRI is the most,
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  important
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  tool that we use.
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  For doctors and primary care physicians and,
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  my message is if there's a patient with
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  new neurological
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  symptom,
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  that has been persistent, especially,
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  it's not wrong to start screening, like, with
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  an MRI of the brain or refer to
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  neurology, and, we can try to figure out
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  either is this MS
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  or is this something else?
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  Got it. That makes a lot of sense,
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  and it's really helpful to think through all
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  the different possibilities, but then making sure you're,
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  finding that that,
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  important screening so, you know, you you can
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  identify early as needed. What are some of
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  the treatment options available today, and how have
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  advances in care
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  improved the quality of life for people living
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  with MS?
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  We have now more than 20 different therapies
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  that we can treat,
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  MS. And over the past ten years, it
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  has been an explosion.
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  We have very effective
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  medicine that can stop relapses or
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  new pockets of lesions,
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  to form.
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  And,
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  now we are working on trying to
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  tackle the part of what we call progression,
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  that slow worsening that occurs over time. And
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  we are the field is moving in that
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  way, and,
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  I'm very positive about that.
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  But besides those,
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  all the medicines that we have for MS
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  is aggressive symptomatic control, trying to have the
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  patient,
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  the best quality of life, treat
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  all their symptoms, and,
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  and other comorbidities
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  as well
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  or other diseases or conditions.
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  That's so important. And, you know, every patient,
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  again, comes with a different,
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  a different condition or different things that they're
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  dealing with in addition to the MS, which
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  makes it so important to have all of
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  those
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  collaborate collaborative view of,
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  their treatments and what's gonna be most beneficial
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  for them. I know it's,
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  MS awareness month. And so during this month,
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  what is the most important message that you
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  want people living with MS and their loved
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  ones to hear?
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  That the future is bright and positive.
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  We are learning
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  more about
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  what MS,
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  how it how how it behaves in the
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  body, understanding the disease better. And by doing
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  that, we can develop better treatment options.
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  Our field is moving towards being more precise,
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  not only diagnosing and treating,
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  but also managing,
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  these patients,
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  long term. There's a lot of exciting research
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  that,
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  is under development and coming out.
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  That's cool to hear and especially important for
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  those who are living with the disease.
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  And
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  looking at some of the the cool innovations
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  in,
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  a bright and and positive future is so
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  helpful. Could you tell us about the work
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  being done at Miami Neuroscience Institute to care
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  for patients with MS and how that's making
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  a difference for people in the community?
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  Yeah. So, thank you.
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  What we try to achieve and what we
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  have been doing is,
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  do a comprehensive care for these patients.
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  They don't not only need the neurologist.
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  Yes. We are important in the patient's, care,
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  but all their disciplines, meaning all their providers,
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  let's say, urologist when they have urinary symptoms,
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  psychiatrist,
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  we know that, depression is really common in
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  the multiple sclerosis,
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  rehab, physical therapy, occupational therapy.
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  Those are some of the things that we
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  can offer.
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  When it comes to treatment. We do have
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  infusion centers.
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  Some of the medicines for MS, they are
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  through the veins, and we can do that
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  for these patients.
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  And research. We are,
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  working on some research,
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  projects that patient can be involved,
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  and can benefit from all these exciting new
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  therapies that are coming out.
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  I love that. Doctor Compress, thank you so
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  much for joining us on the podcast today.
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  This has been a really fantastic discussion, uplifting,
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  especially for a challenging topic. So I appreciate
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  your time today and look forward to continuing
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  the conversation soon.
• 9:33
  Thank you, Laura. It was great.