BACKGROUND In people with multiple sclerosis treated with interferon-beta or glatiramer acetate, new MRI lesions and relapses during the first year of treatment predict a poor prognosis. OBJECTIVE To study this association in those receiving natalizumab. METHODS Data were collected on relapses, new MRI activity, and Modified Rio Score after initiation of natalizumab in an observational coho...

UNLABELLED OBJECTIVES Our objective was to assess the dynamic serum growth hormone (GH) response to clonidine administration in multiple sclerosis patients, looking for a possible biomarker of degenerative process and to correlative with disability. METHODS 21 patients with relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis, who were evaluated clinically by expanded disability status scale (EDSS) scor...

PURPOSE To investigate whether quantitative MRI measures of cervical spinal cord white matter (WM) using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) in neuromyelitis optica (NMO) differed from controls and correlated with clinical disability. MATERIALS AND METHODS Ten referred patients and 12 healthy volunteers were imaged on a 3 Tesla scanner and patients were clinically assessed on the Expanded Disabili...

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...

Objective. To compare patterns of associations of changes in mental and physical health dimensions of health-related quality of life (HRQoL) over time with relapse occurrence and changes in Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) scores in patients with relapsing multiple sclerosis (RMS). Methods. This 24-month, phase IV, observational study enrolled 334 patients with RMS who received interfero...

PURPOSE The aim is to explore the association between self-rated health and employment status in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) when controlling for age, gender, functional disability, disease duration, anxiety and depression. METHOD One hundred eighty-four people with MS completed a sociodemographic questionnaire that included questions on employment status, the first item of the Shor...

BACKGROUND Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic disease associated with several impacts; especially regarding patients' health-related quality of life (HRQL). EuroQol 5 Dimensions questionnaire (EQ-5D) provides self-reported analysis of HRQL and utility scores. Although the British algorithm to convert EQ-5D responses into utility is the most used in the literature, national settings is more ap...

Stem cell therapy, an evolving, progressive field of therapeutics has shown several successes in areas where classic treatments failed to prevent or stop disability. Starting in 2009, twenty two sequential patients with progressive Multiple Sclerosis (MS) courses were treated with Autologous Bone Marrow Mononuclear stem cells (BM-MNSCs). The cells were given both intravenously and intrathecally...

background: mesenchymal stem cells (mscs) with their potential to differentiate into mesodermal and non-mesodermal lineages have several immunomodulatory characteris-tics. these properties make them promising tools in cell and gene therapy. objective: to evaluate the potential therapeutic applications of autologous msc in improving clinical manifestations of ms patients. methods: ten patients w...