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...

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...

OBJECTIVE To identify the functional status and quality of life of HAM/TSP patients. METHOD We evaluated prospectively 30 HAM/TSP patients (20 females) seen in the Neuroinfection Clinic of the HUGG. The functional capacity was analyzed by the functional independence measure (FIM), the expanded disability status (EDSS) scale and the Osame's motor disability score (OMDS). The quality of life wa...

BACKGROUND The Patient Determined Disease Steps (PDDS) is a promising patient-reported outcome (PRO) of disability in multiple sclerosis (MS). To date, there is limited evidence regarding the validity of PDDS scores, despite its sound conceptual development and broad inclusion in MS research. This study examined the validity of the PDDS based on (1) the association with Expanded Disability Stat...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE The T2-weighted MR imaging total lesion volume and Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) score are two common measures of relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis disability and pathologic abnormality. Because the whole-brain N-acetylaspartate concentration is considered to be a new marker of the disease burden, the purpose of this study was to evaluate the relationship a...

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...

OBJECTIVE To examine the association between optimal adherence to the first-generation injectable immunomodulatory drugs (IMDs) for multiple sclerosis (MS) and subsequent disability accumulation. METHODS We accessed prospectively collected linked clinical and administrative health data from British Columbia, Canada. Subjects with MS treated with a first-generation injectable IMD at an MS clin...

The article by Abboud et al. investigating the outcome of neuromyelitis optica (NMO) relapses treated by steroids alone or in association with plasma exchange (PLEX) demonstrates a better outcome in PLEX-treated attacks with a higher proportion of patients improving to baseline Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS): 65% vs 35%. Considering the high level of significance of their results, they...

BACKGROUND Chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency (CCSVI) is a vascular condition characterized by anomalies of the primary veins outside the skull that has been reported to be associated with MS. In the blinded Combined Transcranial (TCD) and Extracranial Venous Doppler Evaluation (CTEVD) study, we found that prevalence of CCSVI was significantly higher in multiple sclerosis (MS) vs. healt...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE We assessed the prevalence and potential association of hypertension with multiple sclerosis (MS)-related disability progression. METHODS This was a retrospective study of 2,813 patients who were followed for 20 years. We modeled the associations of several risk factors with the pattern of disability progression. The primary end point was the rate of disability progress...