Publications by authors named "Jessica Monique Dias Alencar"

Background: Multiple sclerosis has a broad spectrum of clinical courses. Early identification of patients at greater risk of accumulating disability is essential.

Objectives: Identify groups of patients with similar presentation through a mixture model and predict their trajectories over the years.

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For patients with autoimmune diseases, the risks and benefits of immunosuppressive or immunomodulatory treatment are a matter of continual concern. Knowledge of the follow-up routine for each drug is crucial, in order to attain better outcomes and avoid new disease activity or occurrence of adverse effects. To achieve control of autoimmune diseases, immunosuppressive and immunomodulatory drugs act on different pathways of the immune response.

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Background: Inflammatory myelopathies are primarily associated with younger age, and there are few studies in the elderly. Longitudinally extensive spinal cord lesions (LECL) are common in inflammatory myelopathies, but when the first event occurs in older age may have a broader differential diagnosis.

Objectives: To identify all non-traumatic myelopathies' etiologies in patients older than 50 years in a tertiary care hospital and to evaluate characteristics that differentiate inflammatory from non-inflammatory etiologies, focusing on the late-onset (≥50 years old) longitudinally extensive spinal cord lesions (LO-LECL) group.

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