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.

Autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation in relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis: comparison with secondary progressive multiple sclerosis.

The main objective of our work is to describe the long-term results of myeloablative autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplant (AHSCT) in multiple sclerosis patients. Patients that failed to conventional therapies for multiple sclerosis (MS) underwent an approved protocol for AHSCT, which consisted of peripheral blood stem cell mobilization with cyclophosphamide and granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF), followed by a conditioning regimen of BCNU, Etoposide, Ara-C, Melphalan IV, plus Rabbit Thymoglobulin. Thirty-eight MS patients have been transplanted since 1999.

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.

Extraction of the intracranial component from the rheoencephalographic signal: a new approach.

The well-known inherent artifact on the rheoencephalogram (REG) caused by the pulsatility of the scalp blood flow left the REG out of the clinical practice. In fact, depending on the selected electrode arrangement, the measurement of the brain impedance changes time-locked with the heartbeat can be completely buried on that of the scalp. In this work, a novel mathematical method based on the physiological differences between the brain and scalp perfusions is proposed to extract the intracranial information from REG.