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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
00:09:50
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- [00:01]
A
This is Laura Dardell with the Beckers Healthcare Podcast. I'm thrilled today to be joined by Dr. Luis Compress, Director of neuroimmunology and Multiple Sclerosis program at Baptist Health Miami Neuroscience Institute, part of Baptist Health South Florida. Dr. Compress, it's a pleasure to have you on the podcast today.
- [00:18]
B
Thank you for having me.
- [00:20]
A
Absolutely. Now, I'm excited to get into our discussion. I know we're going to be talking a lot about multiple sclerosis and just the way it's impacting patients and families and how to think about that and intrigue treatments moving forward. But before we do, can you tell us a little bit more about yourself and your background?
- [00:38]
B
Yeah, of course. Well, I was born and raised in the Dominican Republic, and I did my neurology residency in University of Cincinnati, Ohio. After that, I did a fellowship in multiple sclerosis and neuroimmunology at University of South Florida in Tampa, and I've been working here in Baptist since then.
- [01:04]
A
That's fantastic. And, you know, really a great pathway into a very important service that you're providing to the community. Now, for listeners who may not know much about multiple sclerosis, what exactly is Ms. And how does it affect the body?
- [01:20]
B
Yeah, basically how I explain in a very simple way is that when your immune system, there is a glitch in your immune system and instead of fighting viruses and bacteria, it start creating pockets of inflammation in different parts of the brain, in the spinal cord, in the optic nerve, and depends on where the symptoms are or the lesion is. You can have symptoms.
- [01:52]
A
Got it. That makes a lot of sense. And it's helpful to understand kind of where it's coming from and just the way it impacts a patient's body. Now, I'm curious, when you think about the disease progression, how does it continue to impact patients? And what are some of the early warning signs or symptoms that Ms. People who have it should not ignore?
- [02:17]
B
Yeah, well, people that have Ms. And they don't know they have ms, and that's a very common question. What are the symptoms? And I divided it in non specific. Sometimes it can be fatigue, numbness here and there, brain fog. But more specific Ms. Symptoms are neurological that last more than one day. And it can be weakness or numbness in one side of the body, nonstop or vision loss in one eye. It can be double vision for, like I mentioned before, for a few days. Body varies a lot because it really depends on where the lesion is, where there is a pocket of inflammation that can cause symptoms. Some people may Dismiss them as just being normal. It's just let us try to figure that out. That's a message I always to transmit to patient.
- [03:25]
A
That's helpful to understand. So really looking for some of those key symptoms and keeping an eye out for them. And I can imagine it's important to identify them quickly and find a treatment pathway.
- [03:39]
B
Correct. And that's very important that you mentioned that, because the sooner we diagnose ms, the sooner we can treat it, and the sooner we treat it, we know that those patients, long term, they tend to do better.
- [03:52]
A
That's helpful to understand. I'm curious now that we know the early warning signs that patients must pay attention to. I know for physicians and clinicians, Ms. Can look different from patient to patient. So why can it sometimes be difficult to diagnose? And what should physicians know about seeing patients who might present with some of these symptoms or trying to figure out what exactly is going on with them?
- [04:16]
B
Yeah, it can be very challenging to diagnose. And the reason is we don't have a specific test that we can get and say, yes, you have Ms. It's not as simple as, for example, diabetes or looking at the cholesterol. You just get a blood test and you just see those results. With ms, it's like building a puzzle. And we put different pieces together in trying to come up with a diagnosis. And one of those is the exam that we do to the patient, what the patient is telling us. MRIs, sometimes we need lumbar puncture. So once we get all that information, we can say, okay, this is Ms. MRI is the most important tool that we use for doctors and primary care physicians. And my message is if there's a patient with new neurological symptom that has been persistent, especially it's not grown to start screening like with an MRI of the brain, but refer to neurology, and we can try to figure out either is this Ms. Or is this something else?
- [05:29]
A
Got it. That makes a lot of sense and is really helpful to think through all the different possibilities. But then making sure you're finding that important, screening so you can identify early as needed. What are some of the treatment options available today? And how have advances in care improved the quality of life for people living with MS?
- [05:53]
B
We have now more than 20 different therapies that we can treat Ms. And over the past 10 years, it has been an explosion. We have very effective medicine that can stop relapses or new pockets of lesions to form. And now we are working on trying to tackle the part of what we call Progression that slow, worsening, that occurs over time. And we are, the field is moving in that way and I'm very positive about that. But besides those, all the medicines that we have for Ms. Is aggressive symptomatic control, trying to have the patient the best quality of life treated, older symptoms and other comorbidities as well, or other diseases or conditions.
- [06:50]
A
That's so important. And you know, every patient again comes with a different condition or different things that they're dealing with in addition to the ms, which makes it so important to have all of those collaborative view of their treatments and what's going to be most beneficial for them. I know it's Ms. Awareness month and so during this month, what is the most important message that you want people living with Ms. And their loved ones to hear?
- [07:20]
B
That the future is bright and positive. We are learning more about what Ms. How, how, how it behaves in the body, understanding the disease better and by doing that we can develop better treatment options. Our field is moving towards being more precise, not only diagnosing and treating, but also managing these patients long term. There's a lot of exciting research that is under development and coming out that's
- [07:54]
A
cool to hear and especially important for those who are living with the disease and looking at some of the cool innovations and bright and positive future is so helpful. Could you tell us about the work being done at Miami Neuroscience Institute to care for patients with Ms. And how that's making a difference for people in the community?
- [08:17]
B
Yeah. So thank you. What we try to achieve and what we have been doing is do a comprehensive care for these patients. They don't not only need a neurologist, yes, we are important in the patient's care, but all their disciplines, meaning other providers, let's say urologists, when they have urinary symptoms, psychiatrists, we know that depression is really common in multiple sclerosis. Rehab, physical therapy, occupational therapy, those are some of the things that we can offer when it comes to treatment. We do have infusion centers. Some of the medicines for ms, they are through the veins and we can do that for these patients. And research, we are working on some research projects that patient can be involved and can benefit from. All these exciting new therapies are coming out.
- [09:20]
A
I love that Dr. Compress. Thank you so much for joining us on the podcast today. This has been a really fantastic discussion, uplifting, especially for a challenging topic. So I appreciate your time today and look forward to continuing the conversation soon.
- [09:34]
B
Thank you, Laura. It was great.