BACKGROUND What currently appears to be irreversible axonal loss in normal appearing white matter, measured by proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy is of great interest in the study of Multiple Sclerosis. Our aim is to determine the axonal damage in normal appearing white matter measured by magnetic resonance spectroscopy and to correlate this with the functional disability measured by Multip...

OBJECTIVE Our objective was to estimate the effectiveness of disease-modifying drugs (DMDs) in delaying multiple sclerosis (MS) disability progression in relapsing-onset (R-onset) definite MS patients under "real-world" conditions. METHODS Treatment effect size, for DMDs as a class, was estimated in absolute terms and relative to MS natural history. A basic model estimated annual Expanded Dis...

Our objective was to compare self-reported health-related quality of life (HRQOL) for U.S. veterans with multiple sclerosis (MS) on disease-modifying agents with provider reports of HRQOL from standard disability measures. We conducted a 3-year prospective observational study of 204 subjects who used interferon beta or glatiramer acetate and compared subjects' responses on the Veterans Short-Fo...

BACKGROUND Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic autoimmune demyelinating disease characterized by inflammation of white matter in the central nervous system. It has been indicated that this inflammation causes increased levels of proinflammatory cytokines. Therefore, we aimed to evaluate if there is a possible association between inflammatory markers and the Expanded Disability Status Scale (ED...

One method of evaluating the degree of neurologic impairment in MS has been the combination of grades (0 = normal to 5 or 6 = maximal impairment) within 8 Functional Systems (FS) and an overall Disability Status Scale (DSS) that had steps from 0 (normal) to 10 (death due to MS). A new Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) is presented, with each of the former steps (1,2,3 . . . 9) now divided...

Results: The relapse number, Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) score at initial diagnosis, and EDSS score at last visit were significantly higher in NMO patients with brain abnormalities than those in NMO patients without brain abnormalities, respectively. NMO patients with brainstem involvement had higher relapse number, EDSS score at initial diagnosis, and EDSS score at last visit than ...

BACKGROUND To improve the consistency of standardized Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) assessments, an electronic data capture tool and analysis tool was developed, Neurostatus e-Scoring (NESC). This tool allows real-time feedback by comparing entries with established scoring rules. OBJECTIVE To test whether using NESC reduces inconsistencies as compared to the paper-and-pencil version...

Methods Twenty-four MS patients with scores ranging from 3.0 to 7.0 on the Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) received four weeks of Swedish massage treatments. The Six-Minute-Walk-Test (6MWT) was used to assess their exercise capacity and leg function and the Hamburg Quality of Life in MS (HAQUAMS) instrument was used to assess changes in client QoL. These assessments were measured before...