OBJECTIVE To determine whether interferon therapy during human pregnancy increases reproductive risks in women. METHODS This longitudinal, controlled cohort study consisted of three groups of women: an exposed group, a disease matched unexposed group, and a healthy comparative group. Subjects were selected from women contacting the Motherisk Program regarding maternal beta interferon exposure...

We investigated the evolution of cortical atrophy in patients with early relapsing-remitting (RR) multiple sclerosis (MS) and its association with lesion volume (LV) accumulation and disability progression. 136 of 181 RRMS patients who participated in the Avonex-Steroids-Azathioprine study were assessed bimonthly for clinical and MRI outcomes over 2 years. MS patients with disease duration (DD)...

Acute demyelinating optic neuritis associated with multiple sclerosis (MS) is the most common cause of inflammation of the optic nerve. The Optic Neuritis Treatment Trial (ONTT) has provided important clinical data on the use of corticosteroids, and demonstrated that patients with characteristic inflammatory lesions within the brain on magnetic resonance imaging had a greater chance of developi...

The recent approvals of Betaseron, Avonex, and Copaxone have improved treatment options for multiple sclerosis (MS), but these therapeutics delay the progression of disease in only ~30% of the patient population. There remains an unmet need for MS therapeutics, and several new drugs enter clinical testing each year in an attempt to meet this need (37,38). This review summarizes the development ...

Technology: Cytokineand antigen-based immunosuppressive therapies for multiple sclerosis. Use: In the last decade partially effective disease-modifying drugs for multiple sclerosis (MS) have finally emerged. All require self-injection and include interferon-β (Betaseron, Avonex and Rebif) and glatiramer acetate (Copaxone). In general, these agents reduce the frequency of MS relapses by onethird...

Objective: To evaluate the clinical efficacy of onceweekly intramuscular interferon beta-1a (IFN B1a, Avonex Biogen) in Iranian multiple sclerosis (MS) patients. Methods: A 12 months, single blind clinical trial conducted from January 2001 to September 2003. Eighty patients with definite MS age 20 to 50 years were allocated to two groups. The first group received 30 microgram (6MIU) IFN B1a wee...

The aim of this study was to analyze the effect of immunomodulatory treatment of multiple sclerosis (MS) on lymphocyte surface immunomarkers. The special attention was given to TCR alpha/beta, gamma/delta and alpha/beta HLA-DR markers. Peripheral blood was obtained from 39 patients with clinically definite R-R MS, fulfilling the criteria of McDonald et al.[5]. The group of 15 patients was treat...

BACKGROUND Interferon beta-1a (IFNbeta-1a, Avonex) is efficacious in relapsing forms of MS. Studies of other IFNbeta preparations in secondary progressive MS (SPMS) yielded conflicting results. This study was undertaken to determine whether IFNbeta-1a slowed disease progression in SP-MS. METHODS A total of 436 subjects with SPMS and Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) score 3.5 to 6.5 wer...

BACKGROUND Interferon beta-1a (IFNbeta-1a; Avonex) is effective for the treatment of relapsing MS; however, the optimal dose of IFNbeta-1a is not known. OBJECTIVE To determine whether IFNbeta-1a 60 micro g IM once weekly is more effective than IFNbeta-1a 30 micro g IM once weekly in reducing disability progression in relapsing MS. METHODS In a double-blind, parallel-group, dose-comparison s...