Steroid hormones in multiple sclerosis.

The possible influence of steroid hormones in multiple sclerosis (MS) has been a matter of great interest. A first illustration comes from the analyses of the influence of gender on susceptibility to MS and on MS severity. A series of arguments emerge in favour of a possible influence of steroid hormones in MS.

Multiple Sclerosis Severity Score: using disability and disease duration to rate disease severity.

Background: There is no consensus method for determining progression of disability in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) when each patient has had only a single assessment in the course of the disease.

Methods: Using data from two large longitudinal databases, the authors tested whether cross-sectional disability assessments are representative of disease severity as a whole. An algorithm, the Multiple Sclerosis Severity Score (MSSS), which relates scores on the Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) to the distribution of disability in patients with comparable disease durations, was devised and then applied to a collection of 9,892 patients from 11 countries to create the Global MSSS.

European validation of a standardized clinical description of multiple sclerosis.

Objectives: The EDMUS system is a clinical database specifically tailored to the description of multiple sclerosis (MS). The EVALUED (Evaluation of the EDMUS system) study is an European project with two objectives: 1) to assess the inter-examiner reliability of the whole EDMUS system; 2) to validate the EDMUS-Grading Scale (EGS),which is a simplified version of the Kurtzke Disability Status Scale (DSS).

Methods: The protocol included 12 neurologists working in pairs within six European centres (Bari, Basel, Florence, London, Lyon, Würzburg).

Clinical characteristics of responders to interferon therapy for relapsing MS.

Objective: To determine the proportion of patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) who respond to interferon-beta (IFNB) therapy and assess whether clinical characteristics differ in IFNB responders vs nonresponders.

Methods: Data on all patients who received IFNB who were entered in the prospective European Database for Multiple Sclerosis (EDMUS) database in Lyon as of March 31, 2001, were reviewed. Responders were defined as having a lower relapse rate on IFNB compared with the year or 2 years prior to IFNB therapy.