Different interleukin-17-secreting Toll-like receptor T-cell subsets are associated with disease activity in multiple sclerosis.

Signalling through Toll-like receptors (TLRs) may play a role in the pathogenesis of autoimmune diseases, such as multiple sclerosis (MS). In the present study, the expression of TLR-2, -4 and -9 was significantly higher on CD4 and CD8 T-cells from MS patients compared to healthy individuals. Following in-vitro activation, the proportion of interleukin (IL)-17 and IL-6 CD4 and CD8 T-cells was higher in the patients.

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.

Interleukin-17- and interleukin-22-secreting myelin-specific CD4(+) T cells resistant to corticoids are related with active brain lesions in multiple sclerosis patients.

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is thought to be an autoimmune disorder. It is believed that immunological events in the early stages have great impact on the disease course. Therefore, we aimed to evaluate the cytokine profile of myelin basic protein (MBP)-specific T cells from MS patients in the early phase of the disease and correlate it to clinical parameters, as well as to the effect of in vitro corticoid treatment.

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.

The impact of diagnostic criteria for neuromyelitis optica in patients with MS: a 10-year follow-up of the South Atlantic Project.

Background: It is recognized that there is a particular geographic and ethnic distribution of neuromyelitis optica (NMO) among Caucasian and non-Caucasian populations.

Objective: To review the diagnoses of patients whom were enrolled in the South Atlantic Project, a Brazilian multiple sclerosis (MS) survey performed from 1995-1998, and to identify NMO and MS case frequencies.

Methods: We reviewed the data from a 10-year follow-up of MS patients.

African ancestry is a predictor factor to secondary progression in clinical course of multiple sclerosis.

Background. Studies on the clinical course of multiple sclerosis have indicated that certain initial clinical factors are predictive of disease progression. Regions with a low prevalence for disease, which have environmental and genetic factors that differ from areas of high prevalence, lack studies on the progressive course and disabling characteristics of the disease.

Acute encephalopathy with bilateral thalamotegmental involvement and a benign course: a case report from Brazil.

This rare encephalopathy that generally affects children is preceded by a respiratory infection and fever associated with convulsions and may progress to coma. Outcome is catastrophic in most cases. This case report describes a Brazilian child of African descent with fever, cephalea and bilateral amaurosis, who evolved to coma with pyramidal signs and associated convulsions.

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).

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.