Optic neuritis in Asian type opticospinal multiple sclerosis (OSMS-ON) in a non-Asian population: A functional-structural paradox.

Background: Biomarkers have improved the classification of autoimmune inflammatory disorders, including optic neuritis (ON) as a frequent presentation of multiple sclerosis, neuromyelitis spectrum disorders, MOG antibody-related disease (MOGAD), and opticospinal multiple sclerosis (OSMS). The phenotype of OSMS in non-Asian populations is less well known.

Objective: We investigated the clinical features and prognosis of OSMS-ON in a Brazilian cohort.

Neuromyelitis optica is an HLA associated disease different from Multiple Sclerosis: a systematic review with meta-analysis.

Neuromyelitis Optica and Multiple Sclerosis are idiopathic inflammatory demyelinating diseases of the central nervous system that currently are considered distinct autoimmune diseases, so differences in genetic susceptibility would be expected. This study aimed to investigate the HLA association with Neuromyelitis Optica by a systematic review with meta-analysis. The STROBE instrument guided research paper assessments.

Is Asian type MS an MS phenotype, an NMO spectrum disorder, or a MOG-IgG related disease?

Background: A specific particularity of neurological diseases in Asia is the relative commonality of neuromyelitis optica (NMO) and Asian type MS (OSMS). Both conditions also occur in South American patients. The Brazilian population differs from the European and the Asian populations due to the mixture of ancestralities between European colonizers and African slaves.

Neuromyelitis optica and pregnancy-puerperal cycle.

Introduction: Since neuromyelitis optic is a disease associated with humoral immunity (Th2), it is speculated that the pregnancy period is associated with increased relapses of the disease, as well as the presence of aquaporin 4 in the placental tissue, could lead to gestational loss. The aim of this study is to evaluate the influence of the puerperal pregnancy cycle on the course of NMO.

Methods: Interviewed women with gestation after diagnosis of optic neuromyelitis and submitted to questionnaires with data on the disease, such as annualized rate of relapses and EDSS score before, during and after gestation.

Pediatric Multiple Sclerosis in Rio de Janeiro: Secondary Progression and Disability.

Background: The onset of multiple sclerosis (MS) in 2% to 10% of cases occurs prior to 18 years of age. Early age onset appears to affect some aspects of multiple sclerosis. The objective of our study was to evaluate the prevalence, the clinical and demographic characteristics, and the disease progression in a sample of pediatric multiple sclerosis patients from a mixed population.

Familial multiple sclerosis in a Brazilian sample: Is HLA-DR15 involved in susceptibility to the disease?

Background: The HLA-DR15 extended haplotype HLA-DRB1*15:01-DQA1*01:02-DQB1*06:02 comprises the strongest genetic risk factor for multiple sclerosis (MS). The aim of this work was to investigate whether HLA-DR15 alleles were significantly associated with the susceptibility to MS familial forms (MSf) in an admixed Brazilian population.

Methods: Association analyses between DR15 and the clinical and demographic variables were made.

Lower frequency of antibodies to MOG in Brazilian patients with demyelinating diseases: An ethnicity influence?

Objective: Antibodies against Myelin Oligodendrocyte glycoprotein (MOG-Ab) have been investigated as potential biological marker for neuromyelitis optica (NMO) and high-risk syndromes (HR) negative for AQP4-Ab in populations with different ethnic background. We tested AQP4 and MOG antibodies in a Brazilian population with high African ethnic background.

Method: The study population was composed of adult patients from Rio de Janeiro with inflammatory demyelinating diseases (new and old cases).

Prognostic factors associated with long-term disability and secondary progression in patients with Multiple Sclerosis.

Background: Predicting the long-term prognosis of patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) remains an uncertain and difficult task, with most data having been obtained exclusively from Caucasian cohorts.

Objective: To investigate clinical prognostic factors in a Brazilian mixed-race cohort.

Methods: Demographic, clinical and therapeutic factors were investigated in 303 patients with relapsing-remitting MS in relation to the following outcomes: time until reaching Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) 3 and EDSS 6, and until secondary progression.

Central Nervous System Idiopathic Inflammatory Demyelinating Disorders in South Americans: A Descriptive, Multicenter, Cross-Sectional Study.

The idiopathic inflammatory demyelinating disease (IIDD) spectrum has been investigated among different populations, and the results have indicated a low relative frequency of neuromyelitis optica (NMO) among multiple sclerosis (MS) cases in whites (1.2%-1.5%), increasing in Mestizos (8%) and Africans (15.

Familial forms of multiple sclerosis and neuromyelitis optica at an MS center in Rio de Janeiro State, Brazil.

Objective: To describe familial forms of demyelinating diseases from an MS referral center in Río de Janeiro State, Brazil.

Methods: A descriptive, cross-sectional study was done to identify familial IIDD cases in Hospital da Lagoa, a public hospital where 75% of patients with IIDD who live in Rio de Janeiro state, located in the Southeast region of Brazil, are referred. The diagnoses of all consecutive patients followed in 2011 were reviewed to apply new diagnostic criteria (Wingerchuk et al.

Anti-AQP(4) antibody in idiopathic acute transverse myelitis with recurrent clinical course: frequency of positivity and influence in prognosis.

Background: The anti-aquaporin4 (anti-AQP4) antibody is specific for neuromyelitis optica (NMO), but is also found in limited forms. The presence of this antibody in acute transverse myelitis (ATM) has been associated with recurrence and conversion to NMO, but the influence on disability has not yet been described.

Objective: To describe the frequency of anti-AQP4 in ATM and analyze the influence in long-term prognosis.

The effects of long-term exposure to disease-modifying drugs during pregnancy in multiple sclerosis.

Background And Objective: Women with multiple sclerosis (MS) who intend to get pregnant are often advised to discontinue disease modifying therapy (DMT) prior to conception. This recommendation is not based on medical evidence and may interfere with disease control by immunomodulatory drugs. The present study was designed to help discuss the effect of DMT for MS on pregnancy and on disease course.

Kinetics and incidence of anti-natalizumab antibodies in multiple sclerosis patients on treatment for 18 months.

Natalizumab is a monoclonal antibody shown to be highly effective in the treatment of relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS). Patients treated with natalizumab can develop antibodies directed against this agent that may affect the efficacy and safety of the drug. In this observational study, the kinetics of the appearance and the incidence of anti-natalizumab antibodies were followed prospectively for 18 months in a cohort of 64 consecutive patients treated with natalizumab for relapsing MS.

The efficacy of natalizumab in patients with multiple sclerosis according to level of disability: results of an observational study.

Background: Little is known about how the level of disability at the start of treatment with natalizumab affects its efficacy.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of natalizumab on relapses in patients with different levels of baseline disability associated with MS.

Methods: This single-centre observational study collected demographic data for patients followed prospectively and who were scheduled to start natalizumab therapy due to the presence of disease activity.

Differences in the progression of primary progressive multiple sclerosis in Brazilians of African descent versus white Brazilian patients.

Recent studies have suggested faster clinical progression and greater disability in multiple sclerosis patients of African descent. This study analysed the effect of ethnicity on progression and disability. Sixty-five patients with primary progressive multiple sclerosis were selected and classified as being of African descent or white.

The clinical course of idiopathic acute transverse myelitis in patients from Rio de Janeiro.

The aim of this study was to describe the demographic, clinical and laboratory features of idiopathic acute transverse myelitis (IATM). Patients with non-compressive ATM receiving care at Hospital da Lagoa, Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) between 2000 and 2008 were selected. Of the 70 cases of acute myelopathies, the idiopathic form was identified in 41 following exclusion of the cases associated with systemic lupus erythematosus (n = 1), Sjogren's syndrome (n = 1), herpes zoster (n = 1), cytomegalovirus in an HIV-positive patient (n = 1), Schistosoma mansoni (n = 1), actinic myelitis (n = 1), infectious myelitis of unknown etiology (n = 2) and those that, following the first attack of myelitis, converted to NMO (n = 19) or to clinically defined MS (n = 2).

HLA class II alleles in patients with multiple sclerosis in the Biscay province (Basque Country, Spain).

Genetic susceptibility to multiple sclerosis (MS) is associated with genes of the major histocompatibility complex, particularly with the HLA DRB1*1501-DQA1*0102-DQB1*0602 haplotype in Caucasians. To investigate the association of DRB1, DQA1 and DQB1 alleles and haplotypes with MS in Biscay, Basque Country, northern Spain, we examined 197 patients and 200 regionally matched controls. High resolution HLA class II typing was performed by polymerase chain reaction followed by sequence-specific oligonucleotide probe hybridization.

The reliability of specific primary progressive MS criteria in an ethnically diverse population.

Unlabelled: Three different diagnostic criteria for primary progressive MS were recently proposed for Caucasian population of Western European region.

Objective: The objective of the study was to apply these criteria to a series of Brazilian patients with high ethnic diversity background to evaluate reproducibility and reliability.

Methods: 52 patients classified as form of the disease that is progressive from onset and followed between 2000 and 2006 were included.

Clinical course of optic neuritis in patients with relapsing neuromyelitis optica.

Objective: To describe the clinical characteristics, course, and prognosis of optic neuritis in recurrent neuromyelitis optica.

Methods: We analyzed 60 patients diagnosed using 1999 Mayo Clinic criteria who were seen between 1985 and 2004 at Hospital da Lagoa (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil).

Results: Optic neuritis was the initial feature in 53.

Post-dengue neuromyelitis optica: case report of a Japanese-descendent Brazilian child.

Monophasic neuromyelitis optica (NMO) is a rare form of post-infection acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (ADEM). Cases occurring after dengue virus infection are rare, despite the high prevalence of this disease in tropical and subtropical countries. We report a female patient, 11 years old, of Japanese ancestry and living in North Brazil, who developed NMO 1 week after having had a benign form of dengue fever.