BACKGROUND The Multiple Sclerosis Severity Score (MSSS) is obtained by normalising the Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) score for disease duration and has been a valuable tool in cross-sectional studies. OBJECTIVE To assess whether use of age rather than the inherently ambiguous disease duration was a feasible approach. METHOD We pooled disability data from three population-based coh...

Cognitive dysfunction affects 40-65% of multiple sclerosis (MS) patients and can occur in the early stages of the disease. This study aimed to explore cognitive functions by means of the Italian version of the minimal assessment of cognitive function in MS (MACFIMS) in relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS) patients with very mild clinical disability to identify the primarily involved cognitive function...

Multiple sclerosis is a disease of unknown aetiology. Despite several advances in therapy in recent years, some problems such as the prognostic criteria are imperfectly understood. Several experimental trials of therapy in multiple sclerosis are in course in order to discover a successful treatment. Most of these research studies use a clinical rating scale named Expanded Disability Status Scal...

Our objective was to compare self-reported health-related quality of life (HRQOL) for U.S. veterans with multiple sclerosis (MS) on disease-modifying agents with provider reports of HRQOL from standard disability measures. We conducted a 3-year prospective observational study of 204 subjects who used interferon beta or glatiramer acetate and compared subjects' responses on the Veterans Short-Fo...

BACKGROUND Treatment with MD1003 (high-dose biotin) showed promising results in progressive multiple sclerosis (MS) in a pilot open-label study. OBJECTIVE To confirm the efficacy and safety of MD1003 in progressive MS in a double-blind, placebo-controlled study. METHODS Patients (n = 154) with a baseline Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) score of 4.5-7 and evidence of disease worsenin...

BACKGROUND Low-contrast visual acuity (LCVA), a sensitive measure of visual function in multiple sclerosis (MS), demonstrated treatment effects as a secondary outcome measure in the Phase 3 trial of natalizumab, AFFIRM. In these posttrial analyses, we studied the relation of visual function to quality of life (QOL), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) measures, and Expanded Disability Status Scale...

OBJECTIVE In multiple sclerosis (MS), the aim of therapies is to prevent the accumulation of irreversible disability. This is difficult to assess given the short time course of clinical trials. MRI markers and relapses are often used as surrogate of disability in MS studies, but their validity remains controversial. We sought to validate, at the individual patient level, MRI lesions and relapse...

background: it seems that serum vitamin d levels are one of the potential environmental factors affecting the severity of multiple sclerosis (ms). in this study, we aim to evaluate vitamin d levels in ms patients and healthy subjects and assess the relationship between vitamin d level and disability. methods: in this case-control study, 168 rapid relapsing ms patients and 168 matched healthy co...

Background: Despite the existence of various imaging methods, the accurate diagnosis of many neurodegenerative diseases is still controversial. The use of advanced imaging techniques, such as the diffusion weighted imaging can be help the early detection of MS and evaluation of the treatment efficacy in these patients. Materials and method: 24 MS patients with acute attack and thirty healthy s...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the effect of natalizumab on disability progression beyond 2 years of treatment in clinical practice. METHODS Analyses included the 496 relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) patients among 5122 patients in the Tysabri Observational Program (TOP) who had completed 4 continuous years of natalizumab treatment and had baseline (study enrollment) and postbaseline Expa...