Evidence for lower susceptibility to multiple sclerosis in Japanese-Americans.

A search for cases of multiple sclerosis (MS) was carried out among the 120,066 Japanese-American residents and the 3,060,366 Caucasian residents native to state of residence in King and Pierce Counties, Washington, and Los Angeles County, California. Although 48 cases would have been expected among Japanese-Americans in both areas (on the basis of the prevalence among Caucasians in these two areas), only eight cases were found who were residents on prevalence day -- all were American-born residents of Los Angeles County. The age-, sex-adjusted prevalence of MS among Japanese-Americans in both areas was 5.9 per 100,000. The lower prevalence of multiple sclerosis among Japanese-Americans than among Caucasians has been interpreted as evidence of a lower susceptibility to factors causing multiple sclerosis.