BACKGROUND Neuromyelitis optica (NMO) is an inflammatory disease of the central nervous system that predominantly affects the optic nerves and spinal cord. Although NMO has long been considered a subtype of multiple sclerosis (MS), the effects of interferon-β treatment are different between NMO and MS. Recent findings of NMO-IgG suggest that NMO could be a distinct disease rather than a subtype...

background: multiple sclerosis (ms) and neuromyelitis optica (nmo) are inflammatory and demyelinating diseases of the central nervous system (cns). nk cells are supposed to play an important role in the pathophysiology of ms, but their role in the nmo remains unknown. the aim of this study was to compare the prevalence of different subpopulations of nk cells in the patients with ms and nmo and ...

Background: Reports on the aquaporin-4 immunoglobulin G (AQP4-IgG) status for cognitive performance and neuroimaging correlations are limited in neuromyelitis optica (NMO) and multiple sclerosis (MS) literature. Methods: Cognitive results of 19 MS and 15 NMO patients were compared with 47 agematched controls. Apparent diffusion coeffi cient (ADC) values were used to delineate gray matter and wh...

A Japanese randomized controlled study showed that Interferon â (IFN-â1b) therapy is clinically effective in decreasing the frequency of attacks in multiple sclerosis (MS), even in optico-spinal MS (OSMS). However, recent studies have shown that IFN-â (IFN-â1a/IFN-â1b) treatment was not effective in neuromyelitis optica (NMO) patients and that the diminished benefit of IFN-â treatment in NMO m...

C opper oxide superconductors, or “cuprates,” are the record holders for the highest critical temperature (Tc = 134 K) at ambient pressure. Among many applications, they might one day be used to make the tens of kilometers of cables that generate accelerating magnetic fields at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider. The origin of high-Tc superconductivity in cuprates, however, remains a major unsolved p...

The treatment of neuromyelitis optica (NMO) should be considerably different between the acute phase and chronic phase. In the acute phase, steroid pulse therapy with high-dose methylprednisolone is the first-line therapy to achieve swift remission and to prevent irreversible disabilities. If one or two courses of steroid pulse therapy are insufficient, plasma exchange should be urgently consid...

OBJECTIVES To analyze aquaporin-4 (AQP4) antibody-positive patients who do not fulfill the current diagnostic criteria of neuromyelitis optica (NMO) and NMO spectrum disorders (NMOSD). METHODS We used a cell-based assay (CBA) with AQP4-transfected cells to detect AQP4 antibody in 298 consecutive patients with inflammatory CNS disorders seen at Tohoku University Hospital from 2007 to 2012. The...