BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Progressive brain atrophy is a well-known feature of multiple sclerosis (MS). We characterized the spatial evolution of atrophy in different MS phenotypes. METHODS Dual-echo and T1-weighted MR images were obtained in 70 patients with MS and 10 healthy control subjects at entry and after 15 months. Within-group changes in regional atrophy were assessed by applying Struct...

Imaging markers that are reliable, reproducible and sensitive to neurodegenerative changes in progressive multiple sclerosis (MS) can enhance the development of new medications with a neuroprotective mode-of-action. Accordingly, in recent years, a considerable number of imaging biomarkers have been included in phase 2 and 3 clinical trials in primary and secondary progressive MS. Brain lesion c...

Neuroplasticity is essential to prevent clinical worsening despite continuing neuronal loss in several brain diseases, including multiple sclerosis (MS). The precise nature of the adaptation mechanisms taking place in MS brains, ensuring protection from disability appearance and accumulation, is however unknown. Here, we explored the hypothesis that long-term synaptic potentiation (LTP), potent...

OBJECTIVE To compare the effects of intravenous methylprednisolone (IVMP) in patients with relapsing-remitting (RR-MS), secondary progressive (SP-MS), and primary progressive multiple sclerosis (PP-MS). METHODS Clinical and neurophysiological follow up was undertaken in 24 RR-MS, eight SP-MS, and nine PP-MS patients receiving Solu-Medrol 500 mg/d over five days for exacerbations involving the...

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...

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic inflammatory and neurodegenerative disease that manifests as acute relapses and progressive disability. As a primary endpoint for clinical trials in MS, disability is difficult to both characterize and measure. Furthermore, the recovery from relapses and the rate of disability vary considerably among patients. Given these challenges, investigators have devel...

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune disease with a genetic component, caused at least in part by aberrant lymphocyte activity. The whole blood mRNA transcriptome was measured for 99 untreated MS patients: 43 primary progressive MS, 20 secondary progressive MS, 36 relapsing remitting MS and 45 age-matched healthy controls. The ANZgene Multiple Sclerosis Genetics Consortium genotyped more th...

We report a case of a 44-years-old woman with relapsing-remitting and secondarily progressive form of multiple sclerosis (MS) since aged 24 years, who developed an anaplastic astrocytoma. The neurological manifestations of the tumor were misinterpreted as resulting from MS. Sequential MRI examination and seizures raised the possibility of another nature of her symptoms, besides MS. Her initial ...

BACKGROUND AND AIM The psychometric properties of rating scales are sample dependent and need evaluations in different samples. The Multiple Sclerosis Impact Scale (MSIS-29), a new patient based rating scale for multiple sclerosis (MS) was predominantly developed from a community based sample derived from the MS Society. A number of important patient characteristics of this sample remain unknow...

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is postulated to be a T cell-mediated autoimmune disease characterized clinically by a relapsing-remitting (RR) stage followed by a secondary progressive (SP) phase. The progressive phase is felt to be secondary to neuronal degenerative changes triggered by inflammation. The status of the innate immune system and its relationship to the stages of MS is not well understoo...