BACKGROUND Most people with multiple sclerosis (PwMS) experience progressively worsening disability over a period of decades, thus further knowledge about the long-term changes in different areas of disability is essential. OBJECTIVES The aims of this study were to evaluate changes in disability over ten years in PwMS, and to explore the value of personal and disease-specific factors and depr...

Significant corpus callosum (CC) involvement has been found in relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS), even if conventional magnetic resonance imaging measures have shown poor correlation with clinical disability measures. In this work, we tested the potential of multimodal imaging of the entire CC to explain physical and cognitive disability in 47 patients with RRMS. Values of thickness...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Multiple sclerosis (MS) is the most common inflammatory disease of the central nervous system and manifests both physical and neurocognitive disabilities. Although predominantly a disease of the white matter, MS is also characterized by lesions in the gray matter. Previous pathologic studies have found that cortical and deep gray matter lesions comprised 5% and 4%, respec...

BACKGROUND Physical activity has been consistently associated with enhanced quality of life (QOL) in older adults. However, the nature of this relationship is not fully understood. In this study of community dwelling older adults, we examined the proposition that physical activity influences global QOL through self-efficacy and health-status. METHODS Participants (N = 321, M age = 63.8) compl...

Ramadan fasting predispose multiple sclerosis (MS) patients to a great challenge. Clinicians should have practical knowledge about the effects of fasting on MS. A mini-symposium was held in 2013 to answer the common questions about fasting in MS patients. In current review we present a summary of the mentioned mini-symposium.Generally, fasting is possible for most stable MS patients. Thorough m...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE The influence of apolipoprotein E (ApoE) polymorphism on clinical severity of multiple sclerosis (MS) is still controversial. Cigarette smoking has been suggested to influence the progression of disability in these patients. In this study, we aimed to investigate whether an interaction of smoking with the ApoE polymorphism influences the progression of disability in MS pa...

Cortical inflammatory lesions have been correlated with disability and cortical atrophy in multiple sclerosis. The extent to which cortical lesion load is associated with longer-term physical and cognitive disability in different multiple sclerosis phenotypes has not yet been investigated. Thus, a 5-year prospective longitudinal study was carried on in a large group of patients with multiple sc...

Background: Fear of falling (FOF) is a permanent concern and may limit daily activities and diminish confidence in balance abilities, leading to muscular deterioration, sedentary lifestyle, and reduced quality of life. The present study aimed to investigate the relationship between multiple sclerosis severity and FOF with mediating roles of disability, cognitive factors, and physical factors am...

Disability status, depression and anxiety are important determinants of quality of life (QoL) in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). We investigated whether anxiety and depression influence the relation between disability status and QoL in our cohort of recently diagnosed patients. Disability status [Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS)], anxiety and depression [Hospital Anxiety and Depre...

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...