Onset of secondary progressive multiple sclerosis is not influenced by current relapsing multiple sclerosis therapies.

Background: Disease-modifying therapies are thought to reduce the conversion rate to secondary progressive multiple sclerosis.

Objective: To explore the rate, chronology, and contributing factors of conversion to the progressive phase in treated relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis patients.

Methods: Our study included 204 patients treated for relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis between 1995 and 2002, prospectively followed to date.

Pulsed steroids followed by glatiramer acetate to prevent inflammatory activity after cessation of natalizumab therapy: a prospective, 6-month observational study.

In this study, the tolerability and safety of treatment with pulsed steroids and glatiramer acetate and the occurrence of clinical and radiological activity after natalizumab (NTZ) cessation in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients were assessed. MS patients with NTZ were discontinued after 2 years of treatment, or if adverse events or disease progressed during NTZ. They were offered as alternative treatment 1 g methylprednisolone per month during 3 months followed by daily 20 mcg glatiramer acetate and were prospectively studied.