Many disease-modifying therapies are currently available for adults with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (MS) but none of them has been tested in pediatric MS in randomized placebo-controlled trials. At present, as suggested by observational studies and experts' guidelines, interferon-β and glatiramer acetate continue to be the standard first-line treatments for pediatric MS. Observation...

OBJECTIVE To determine if prenatal, pregnancy, or postpartum-related environmental factors are associated with multiple sclerosis (MS) risk in children. METHODS This is a case-control study of children with MS or clinically isolated syndrome and healthy controls enrolled at 16 clinics participating in the US Network of Pediatric MS Centers. Parents completed a comprehensive environmental ques...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the Symbol Digit Modalities Test (SDMT) as a tool for identifying pediatric-onset MS patients at risk for cognitive impairment. BACKGROUND The SDMT is a brief measure of cognitive processing speed that is often used in adult MS patients. Approximately one-third of pediatric-onset MS patients have cognitive impairment and there is a need for an effective screening instrum...

We studied seroprevalence and concentrations of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) antibodies in 147 pediatric patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) and paired controls. The children with MS showed a near-complete seropositivity for EBV antibody against virus capsid antigen (98.6% vs 72.1% in controls, p = 0.001) but did not display serologic evidence for a recent EBV infection. EBV antibody concentratio...

Background. Our goal was to compare the carotid intimal-medial thickness (CIMT) of untreated pediatric patients with metabolic syndrome (MS), heterozygous familial hyperlipidemia (heFH), and MS+heFH against one another and against a control group consisting of healthy, normal body habitus children. Methods. Our population consisted of untreated pediatric patients (ages 5-20 yrs) who had CIMT me...

tral nervous system demyelination have been increasingly recognized in children. Moreover, a much higher proportion of children (as compared to adults) suffer from a monophasic (and not chronic) demyelinating event such as acute disseminated encephalomyelitis or isolated optic neuritis, and transverse myelitis, often post-infectious. Differentiation between such acute monophasic illnesses and a...

Cognitive deficits (CD) affect a large proportion of adult patients with multiple sclerosis (MS), even at the early clinical stages of the disease. With the application of advanced MRI techniques, it has become possible to investigate structural and functional correlates of CD in adult MS. Structural MRI studies suggest that diffuse (microscopic) brain damage, rather than just focal (macroscopi...

During the past 10 years much knowledge has been gained about multiple sclerosis in the pediatric population. This article summarizes the information relevant to the neurologist and pediatric neurologist concerning the diagnosis, differential diagnosis and therapy for pediatric MS.

OBJECTIVE This study aimed to determine the extent and pattern of brain activation elicited by a functional magnetic resonance imaging version of the Symbol Digit Modalities Test (fMRI-SDMT), a task of information processing speed, in pediatric-onset multiple sclerosis (MS) patients as compared to sex- and age-matched non-MS self-reported healthy individuals. METHOD Participants included 20 r...

BACKGROUND Risk associated with short QT interval has recently received recognition. European studies suggest a prevalence of 0.02% to 0.1% in the adult population, but similar studies in pediatric patients are limited. We sought to determine the prevalence of short QT interval in a pediatric population and associated clinical characteristics and outcomes. METHODS AND RESULTS Retrospective re...