Association of Sustained Immunotherapy With Disability Outcomes in Patients With Active Secondary Progressive Multiple Sclerosis.

Importance: It is unclear whether relapses and disease-modifying therapies are associated with the rate of disability accumulation in patients with secondary progressive multiple sclerosis (SPMS).

Objective: To examine the association of relapses with the rate of disability accumulation in patients with SPMS and to assess whether treatment before or during the secondary progressive phase can slow the progression of disability accumulation.

Design, Setting, And Participants: In this observational cohort study, patient data were prospectively collected from the MSBase international registry between January 1, 1995, and February 1, 2018.

Real-world effectiveness of cladribine for Australian patients with multiple sclerosis: An MSBase registry substudy.

Background/objective: Observational clinical data from cladribine-treated patients with relapsing forms of multiple sclerosis (MS) were recorded in the Australian MS registry powered by the MSBase registry platform (5-year follow-up) and analysed to complement information from the pivotal cladribine clinical trials in MS.

Methods: A cohort of 90 cladribine-treated patients with follow-up data reported by treating physicians and recorded in the Australian MSBase registry (database lock February 2016) were examined. Clinical data included Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) scores, relapses and other disease-modifying drugs (DMDs) administered before and after cladribine treatment.

Retinal ganglion cell loss in neuromyelitis optica: a longitudinal study.

Objectives: Neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorders (NMOSD) are inflammatory conditions of the central nervous system and an important differential diagnosis of multiple sclerosis (MS). Unlike MS, the course is usually relapsing, and it is unclear, if progressive neurodegeneration contributes to disability. Therefore, we aimed to investigate if progressive retinal neuroaxonal damage occurs in aquaporin4-antibody-seropositive NMOSD.

Impairment of Smooth Pursuit as a Marker of Early Multiple Sclerosis.

Background: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a diffuse disease that disrupts wide-ranging cerebral networks. The control of saccades and smooth pursuit are similarly dependent upon widespread networks, with the assessment of pursuit offering an opportunity to examine feedback regulation. We sought to characterize pursuit deficits in MS and to examine their relationship with disease duration.

Highly active immunomodulatory therapy ameliorates accumulation of disability in moderately advanced and advanced multiple sclerosis.

Objective: To evaluate variability and predictability of disability trajectories in moderately advanced and advanced multiple sclerosis (MS), and their modifiability with immunomodulatory therapy.

Methods: The epochs between Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) steps 3-6, 4-6 and 6-6.5 were analysed.

Ocular motor signatures of cognitive dysfunction in multiple sclerosis.

The anatomical and functional overlap between ocular motor command circuitry and the higher-order networks that form the scaffolding for cognition makes for a compelling hypothesis that measures of ocular motility could provide a means to sensitively interrogate cognitive dysfunction in people with multiple sclerosis (MS). Such an approach may ultimately provide objective and reproducible measures of cognitive dysfunction that offer an innovative capability to refine diagnosis, improve prognostication, and more accurately codify disease burden. A further dividend may be the validation and application of biomarkers that can be used in studies aimed at identifying and monitoring preventative, protective and even restorative properties of novel neurotherapeutics in MS.

Ocular motor measures of cognitive dysfunction in multiple sclerosis I: inhibitory control.

Our ability to control and inhibit behaviours that are inappropriate, unsafe, or no longer required is crucial for functioning successfully in complex environments. Here, we investigated whether a series of ocular motor (OM) inhibition tasks could dissociate deficits in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS), including patients with only a probable diagnosis (clinically isolated syndrome: CIS), from healthy individuals as well as a function of increasing disease duration. 25 patients with CIS, 25 early clinically definite MS patients (CDMS: ≤7 years of diagnosis), 24 late CDMS patients (>7 years from diagnosis), and 25 healthy controls participated.

Ocular motor measures of cognitive dysfunction in multiple sclerosis II: working memory.

Our companion paper documents pervasive inhibitory deficits in multiple sclerosis (MS) using ocular motor (OM) measures. Here we investigated the utility of an OM working memory (WMem) task in characterising WMem deficits in these patients as a function of disease status and disease duration. 22 patients with CIS, 22 early clinically definite MS patients (CDMS: <7 years of diagnosis), 22 late CDMS patients (>7 years from diagnosis), and 22 healthy controls participated.