Multiple Sclerosis

Two years after the end of a randomized trial that showed a benefit of daily vitamin D and omega-3 fatty acid (n-3 FA) supplementation for reducing risk for autoimmune diseases, the salubrious effects of daily vitamin D appear to have waned after the supplement was discontinued, while the protection from n-3 lived on for at least 2 additional years.

As previously reported, the randomized VITAL, which was designed primarily to study the effects of vitamin D and n-3 supplementation on incident cancer and cardiovascular disease, also showed that 5 years of vitamin D supplementation was associated with a 22% reduction in risk for confirmed autoimmune diseases, and 5 years of n-3 FA supplementation was associated with an 18% reduction in confirmed and probable incident autoimmune diseases.

Now, investigators Karen H. Costenbader, MD, MPH, of Brigham & Women’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, and colleagues reported that among 21,592 participants in VITAL who agreed to be followed for an additional 2 years after discontinuation, the protection against autoimmune diseases from daily vitamin D (cholecalciferol; 2000 IU/d) was no longer statistically significant, but the benefits of daily marine n-3 FAs (1 g/d as a fish-oil capsule containing 460 mg of eicosapentaenoic acid and 380 mg of docosahexaenoic acid) remained significant.

“VITAL observational extension results suggest that vitamin D supplementation should be given on a continuous basis for long-term prevention of [autoimmune diseases]. The beneficial effects of n-3 fatty acids, however, may be prolonged for at least 2 years after discontinuation,” they wrote in an article published in Arthritis & Rheumatology.

Dr. Costenbader told this news organization that the results of the observational extension study suggest that the benefits of vitamin D “wear off more quickly, and it should be continued for a longer period of time or indefinitely, rather than only for 5 years.”

In addition to the disparity in the duration of the protective effect, the investigators also saw differences in the effects across different autoimmune diseases.

“The protective effect of vitamin D seemed strongest for psoriasis, while for omega-3 fatty acids, the protective effects were strongest for rheumatoid arthritis and inflammatory bowel disease,” she said.
 

Mixed Effects

In an interview with this news organization, Janet Funk, MD, MS, vice chair of research in the Department of Medicine and professor in the School of Nutritional Science and Wellness at the University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, who was not involved in the study, saidthat the results suggest that while each supplement may offer protection against autoimmune diseases, the effects are inconsistent and may not apply to all patients.

“I think the VITAL extension results suggest that either supplement (or both together) may have benefits in reducing risk of autoimmune diseases, including possible persistent effects posttreatment, but that these effects are nuanced (ie, only in normal weight post-vitamin D treatment) and possibly not uniform across all autoimmune diseases (including possible adverse effects for some — eg, inverse association between prior omega-3 and psoriasis and tendency for increased autoimmune thyroid disease for vitamin D), although the study was not powered sufficiently to draw disease-specific conclusions,” she said.

In an editorial accompanying the study, rheumatologist Joel M. Kremer, MD, of Albany Medical College and the Corrona Research Foundation in Delray Beach, Florida, wrote that “[T]he studies by Dr. Costenbader, et al. have shed new light on the possibility that dietary supplements of n-3 FA [fatty acid] may prevent the onset of [autoimmune disease]. The sustained benefits they describe for as long as 2 years after the supplements are discontinued are consistent with the chronicity of FA species in cellular plasma membranes where they serve as substrates for a diverse array of salient metabolic and inflammatory pathways.”
 

VITAL Then

To test whether vitamin D or marine-derived long-chain n-3 FA supplementation could protect against autoimmune disease over time, Dr. Costenbader and colleagues piggybacked an ancillary study onto the VITAL trial, which had primary outcomes of cancer and cardiovascular disease incidence.

A total of 25,871 participants were enrolled, including 12,786 men aged 50 and older and 13,085 women aged 55 and older. The study had a 2 × 2 factorial design, with patients randomly assigned to vitamin D 2000 IU/d or placebo and then further randomized to either 1 g/d n-3 FAs or placebo in both the vitamin D and placebo primary randomization arms.

In multivariate analysis adjusted for age, sex, race, and other supplement arm, vitamin D alone was associated with a hazard ratio (HR) of 0.68 (P = .02) for incident autoimmune disease, n-3 alone was associated with a nonsignificant HR of 0.74, and the combination was associated with an HR of 0.69 (P = .03). However, when probable incident autoimmune disease cases were included, the effect of n-3 became significant, with an HR of 0.82.
 

VITAL Now

In the current analysis, Dr. Costenbader and colleagues reported observational data on 21,592 VITAL participants, a sample representing 83.5% of those who were initially randomized, and 87.9% of those who were alive and could be contacted at the end of the study.

As in the initial trial, the investigators used annual questionnaires to assess incident autoimmune diseases during the randomized follow-up. Participants were asked about new-onset, doctor-diagnosed rheumatoid arthritis, polymyalgia rheumatica, psoriasis, autoimmune thyroid disease, and inflammatory bowel disease. Participants could also write in any other new autoimmune disease diagnoses.

There were 236 new cases of confirmed autoimmune disease that occurred since the initial publication of the trial results, as well as 65 probable cases identified during the median 5.3 years of the randomized portion, and 42 probable cases diagnosed during the 2-year observational phase.

The investigators found that after the 2-year observation period, 255 participants initially randomized to receive vitamin D had a newly developed confirmed autoimmune disease, compared with 259 of those initially randomized to a vitamin D placebo. This translated into a nonsignificant HR of 0.98.

Adding probable autoimmune cases to the confirmed cases made little difference, resulting in a nonsignificant adjusted HR of 0.95.

In contrast, there were 234 confirmed autoimmune disease cases among patients initially assigned to n-3, compared with 280 among patients randomized to the n-3 placebo, translating into a statistically significant HR of 0.83 for new-onset autoimmune disease with n-3.

Dr. Costenbader and colleagues acknowledged that the study was limited by the use of doses intended to prevent cancer or cardiovascular disease and that higher doses intended for high-risk or nutritionally deficient populations might reveal larger effects of supplementation. In addition, they noted the difficulty of identifying the timing and onset of incident disease, and that the small number of cases that occurred during the 2-year observational period precluded detailed analyses of individual autoimmune diseases.

The study was funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Costenbader, Dr. Funk, and Dr. Kremer reported no relevant financial relationships.

A version of this article appeared on Medscape.com.

Two years after the end of a randomized trial that showed a benefit of daily vitamin D and omega-3 fatty acid (n-3 FA) supplementation for reducing risk for autoimmune diseases, the salubrious effects of daily vitamin D appear to have waned after the supplement was discontinued, while the protection from n-3 lived on for at least 2 additional years.

As previously reported, the randomized VITAL, which was designed primarily to study the effects of vitamin D and n-3 supplementation on incident cancer and cardiovascular disease, also showed that 5 years of vitamin D supplementation was associated with a 22% reduction in risk for confirmed autoimmune diseases, and 5 years of n-3 FA supplementation was associated with an 18% reduction in confirmed and probable incident autoimmune diseases.

Now, investigators Karen H. Costenbader, MD, MPH, of Brigham & Women’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, and colleagues reported that among 21,592 participants in VITAL who agreed to be followed for an additional 2 years after discontinuation, the protection against autoimmune diseases from daily vitamin D (cholecalciferol; 2000 IU/d) was no longer statistically significant, but the benefits of daily marine n-3 FAs (1 g/d as a fish-oil capsule containing 460 mg of eicosapentaenoic acid and 380 mg of docosahexaenoic acid) remained significant.

“VITAL observational extension results suggest that vitamin D supplementation should be given on a continuous basis for long-term prevention of [autoimmune diseases]. The beneficial effects of n-3 fatty acids, however, may be prolonged for at least 2 years after discontinuation,” they wrote in an article published in Arthritis & Rheumatology.

Dr. Costenbader told this news organization that the results of the observational extension study suggest that the benefits of vitamin D “wear off more quickly, and it should be continued for a longer period of time or indefinitely, rather than only for 5 years.”

In addition to the disparity in the duration of the protective effect, the investigators also saw differences in the effects across different autoimmune diseases.

“The protective effect of vitamin D seemed strongest for psoriasis, while for omega-3 fatty acids, the protective effects were strongest for rheumatoid arthritis and inflammatory bowel disease,” she said.
 

Mixed Effects

In an interview with this news organization, Janet Funk, MD, MS, vice chair of research in the Department of Medicine and professor in the School of Nutritional Science and Wellness at the University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, who was not involved in the study, saidthat the results suggest that while each supplement may offer protection against autoimmune diseases, the effects are inconsistent and may not apply to all patients.

“I think the VITAL extension results suggest that either supplement (or both together) may have benefits in reducing risk of autoimmune diseases, including possible persistent effects posttreatment, but that these effects are nuanced (ie, only in normal weight post-vitamin D treatment) and possibly not uniform across all autoimmune diseases (including possible adverse effects for some — eg, inverse association between prior omega-3 and psoriasis and tendency for increased autoimmune thyroid disease for vitamin D), although the study was not powered sufficiently to draw disease-specific conclusions,” she said.

In an editorial accompanying the study, rheumatologist Joel M. Kremer, MD, of Albany Medical College and the Corrona Research Foundation in Delray Beach, Florida, wrote that “[T]he studies by Dr. Costenbader, et al. have shed new light on the possibility that dietary supplements of n-3 FA [fatty acid] may prevent the onset of [autoimmune disease]. The sustained benefits they describe for as long as 2 years after the supplements are discontinued are consistent with the chronicity of FA species in cellular plasma membranes where they serve as substrates for a diverse array of salient metabolic and inflammatory pathways.”
 

VITAL Then

To test whether vitamin D or marine-derived long-chain n-3 FA supplementation could protect against autoimmune disease over time, Dr. Costenbader and colleagues piggybacked an ancillary study onto the VITAL trial, which had primary outcomes of cancer and cardiovascular disease incidence.

A total of 25,871 participants were enrolled, including 12,786 men aged 50 and older and 13,085 women aged 55 and older. The study had a 2 × 2 factorial design, with patients randomly assigned to vitamin D 2000 IU/d or placebo and then further randomized to either 1 g/d n-3 FAs or placebo in both the vitamin D and placebo primary randomization arms.

In multivariate analysis adjusted for age, sex, race, and other supplement arm, vitamin D alone was associated with a hazard ratio (HR) of 0.68 (P = .02) for incident autoimmune disease, n-3 alone was associated with a nonsignificant HR of 0.74, and the combination was associated with an HR of 0.69 (P = .03). However, when probable incident autoimmune disease cases were included, the effect of n-3 became significant, with an HR of 0.82.
 

VITAL Now

In the current analysis, Dr. Costenbader and colleagues reported observational data on 21,592 VITAL participants, a sample representing 83.5% of those who were initially randomized, and 87.9% of those who were alive and could be contacted at the end of the study.

As in the initial trial, the investigators used annual questionnaires to assess incident autoimmune diseases during the randomized follow-up. Participants were asked about new-onset, doctor-diagnosed rheumatoid arthritis, polymyalgia rheumatica, psoriasis, autoimmune thyroid disease, and inflammatory bowel disease. Participants could also write in any other new autoimmune disease diagnoses.

There were 236 new cases of confirmed autoimmune disease that occurred since the initial publication of the trial results, as well as 65 probable cases identified during the median 5.3 years of the randomized portion, and 42 probable cases diagnosed during the 2-year observational phase.

The investigators found that after the 2-year observation period, 255 participants initially randomized to receive vitamin D had a newly developed confirmed autoimmune disease, compared with 259 of those initially randomized to a vitamin D placebo. This translated into a nonsignificant HR of 0.98.

Adding probable autoimmune cases to the confirmed cases made little difference, resulting in a nonsignificant adjusted HR of 0.95.

In contrast, there were 234 confirmed autoimmune disease cases among patients initially assigned to n-3, compared with 280 among patients randomized to the n-3 placebo, translating into a statistically significant HR of 0.83 for new-onset autoimmune disease with n-3.

Dr. Costenbader and colleagues acknowledged that the study was limited by the use of doses intended to prevent cancer or cardiovascular disease and that higher doses intended for high-risk or nutritionally deficient populations might reveal larger effects of supplementation. In addition, they noted the difficulty of identifying the timing and onset of incident disease, and that the small number of cases that occurred during the 2-year observational period precluded detailed analyses of individual autoimmune diseases.

The study was funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Costenbader, Dr. Funk, and Dr. Kremer reported no relevant financial relationships.

A version of this article appeared on Medscape.com.

Two years after the end of a randomized trial that showed a benefit of daily vitamin D and omega-3 fatty acid (n-3 FA) supplementation for reducing risk for autoimmune diseases, the salubrious effects of daily vitamin D appear to have waned after the supplement was discontinued, while the protection from n-3 lived on for at least 2 additional years.

As previously reported, the randomized VITAL, which was designed primarily to study the effects of vitamin D and n-3 supplementation on incident cancer and cardiovascular disease, also showed that 5 years of vitamin D supplementation was associated with a 22% reduction in risk for confirmed autoimmune diseases, and 5 years of n-3 FA supplementation was associated with an 18% reduction in confirmed and probable incident autoimmune diseases.

Now, investigators Karen H. Costenbader, MD, MPH, of Brigham & Women’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, and colleagues reported that among 21,592 participants in VITAL who agreed to be followed for an additional 2 years after discontinuation, the protection against autoimmune diseases from daily vitamin D (cholecalciferol; 2000 IU/d) was no longer statistically significant, but the benefits of daily marine n-3 FAs (1 g/d as a fish-oil capsule containing 460 mg of eicosapentaenoic acid and 380 mg of docosahexaenoic acid) remained significant.

“VITAL observational extension results suggest that vitamin D supplementation should be given on a continuous basis for long-term prevention of [autoimmune diseases]. The beneficial effects of n-3 fatty acids, however, may be prolonged for at least 2 years after discontinuation,” they wrote in an article published in Arthritis & Rheumatology.

Dr. Costenbader told this news organization that the results of the observational extension study suggest that the benefits of vitamin D “wear off more quickly, and it should be continued for a longer period of time or indefinitely, rather than only for 5 years.”

In addition to the disparity in the duration of the protective effect, the investigators also saw differences in the effects across different autoimmune diseases.

“The protective effect of vitamin D seemed strongest for psoriasis, while for omega-3 fatty acids, the protective effects were strongest for rheumatoid arthritis and inflammatory bowel disease,” she said.
 

Mixed Effects

In an interview with this news organization, Janet Funk, MD, MS, vice chair of research in the Department of Medicine and professor in the School of Nutritional Science and Wellness at the University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, who was not involved in the study, saidthat the results suggest that while each supplement may offer protection against autoimmune diseases, the effects are inconsistent and may not apply to all patients.

“I think the VITAL extension results suggest that either supplement (or both together) may have benefits in reducing risk of autoimmune diseases, including possible persistent effects posttreatment, but that these effects are nuanced (ie, only in normal weight post-vitamin D treatment) and possibly not uniform across all autoimmune diseases (including possible adverse effects for some — eg, inverse association between prior omega-3 and psoriasis and tendency for increased autoimmune thyroid disease for vitamin D), although the study was not powered sufficiently to draw disease-specific conclusions,” she said.

In an editorial accompanying the study, rheumatologist Joel M. Kremer, MD, of Albany Medical College and the Corrona Research Foundation in Delray Beach, Florida, wrote that “[T]he studies by Dr. Costenbader, et al. have shed new light on the possibility that dietary supplements of n-3 FA [fatty acid] may prevent the onset of [autoimmune disease]. The sustained benefits they describe for as long as 2 years after the supplements are discontinued are consistent with the chronicity of FA species in cellular plasma membranes where they serve as substrates for a diverse array of salient metabolic and inflammatory pathways.”
 

VITAL Then

To test whether vitamin D or marine-derived long-chain n-3 FA supplementation could protect against autoimmune disease over time, Dr. Costenbader and colleagues piggybacked an ancillary study onto the VITAL trial, which had primary outcomes of cancer and cardiovascular disease incidence.

A total of 25,871 participants were enrolled, including 12,786 men aged 50 and older and 13,085 women aged 55 and older. The study had a 2 × 2 factorial design, with patients randomly assigned to vitamin D 2000 IU/d or placebo and then further randomized to either 1 g/d n-3 FAs or placebo in both the vitamin D and placebo primary randomization arms.

In multivariate analysis adjusted for age, sex, race, and other supplement arm, vitamin D alone was associated with a hazard ratio (HR) of 0.68 (P = .02) for incident autoimmune disease, n-3 alone was associated with a nonsignificant HR of 0.74, and the combination was associated with an HR of 0.69 (P = .03). However, when probable incident autoimmune disease cases were included, the effect of n-3 became significant, with an HR of 0.82.
 

VITAL Now

In the current analysis, Dr. Costenbader and colleagues reported observational data on 21,592 VITAL participants, a sample representing 83.5% of those who were initially randomized, and 87.9% of those who were alive and could be contacted at the end of the study.

As in the initial trial, the investigators used annual questionnaires to assess incident autoimmune diseases during the randomized follow-up. Participants were asked about new-onset, doctor-diagnosed rheumatoid arthritis, polymyalgia rheumatica, psoriasis, autoimmune thyroid disease, and inflammatory bowel disease. Participants could also write in any other new autoimmune disease diagnoses.

There were 236 new cases of confirmed autoimmune disease that occurred since the initial publication of the trial results, as well as 65 probable cases identified during the median 5.3 years of the randomized portion, and 42 probable cases diagnosed during the 2-year observational phase.

The investigators found that after the 2-year observation period, 255 participants initially randomized to receive vitamin D had a newly developed confirmed autoimmune disease, compared with 259 of those initially randomized to a vitamin D placebo. This translated into a nonsignificant HR of 0.98.

Adding probable autoimmune cases to the confirmed cases made little difference, resulting in a nonsignificant adjusted HR of 0.95.

In contrast, there were 234 confirmed autoimmune disease cases among patients initially assigned to n-3, compared with 280 among patients randomized to the n-3 placebo, translating into a statistically significant HR of 0.83 for new-onset autoimmune disease with n-3.

Dr. Costenbader and colleagues acknowledged that the study was limited by the use of doses intended to prevent cancer or cardiovascular disease and that higher doses intended for high-risk or nutritionally deficient populations might reveal larger effects of supplementation. In addition, they noted the difficulty of identifying the timing and onset of incident disease, and that the small number of cases that occurred during the 2-year observational period precluded detailed analyses of individual autoimmune diseases.

The study was funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Costenbader, Dr. Funk, and Dr. Kremer reported no relevant financial relationships.

A version of this article appeared on Medscape.com.

Women with autoimmune disease are more likely to have perinatal depression (PND), according to findings from a new study that also suggested the reverse relationship is true: Women with a history of PND have a higher risk of developing autoimmune disease.

The research, published online on January 9, 2024, in Molecular Psychiatry, was led by Emma Bränn, PhD, Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden.

The researchers used data from the Swedish Medical Birth Register and identified all women who had given birth in Sweden between 2001 and 2013. Out of the group of approximately 815,000 women and 1.3 million pregnancies, just more than 55,000 women had been diagnosed with depression during their pregnancy or within a year after delivery.

The researchers then compared the incidence of 41 autoimmune diseases in women who had and did not have PND. They controlled for factors including genetic makeup and childhood environment.

Results indicated that women with autoimmune disease were 30% more likely to have PND (odds ratio, 1.30; 95% CI, 1.25-1.35). Conversely, women with PND were 30% more likely than women with no PND to develop an autoimmune disease (hazard ratio, 1.30; 95% CI, 1.25-1.36).

A sibling comparison helped confirm the results by controlling for some shared genetic and early life environmental factors related to the household in which sisters grew up.
 

Potential Shared Biological Mechanisms

The association was independent of psychiatric comorbidities, suggesting there may be shared biological mechanisms.

Dr. Bränn told this news organization that the research team wanted to do the study because previous research has shown involvement of the immune system in depression, with similarities in both the symptoms of immune system–activated diseases and depression and the molecular pathways activated by the immune system.

“Adding on top of the tremendous changes in the immune system that we see in the body of the woman during the perinatal period, we hypothesized that autoimmune diseases could be associated to perinatal depression,” she said. “This had also been shown in some previous literature but not to the extent as what we have investigated in this paper.”

She said their results help make a case for counseling women at several points in healthcare interactions — before and after conception and childbirth — and in rheumatology visits to inform women with autoimmune diseases who are contemplating motherhood of the association with developing PND. The results may also demonstrate a need for monitoring women in these groups for depression or autoimmune disease.

Fred Miller, MD, PhD, retired Scientist Emeritus of the Environmental Autoimmunity Group at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, who was not part of the study, said the results seem plausible as they build on early work that demonstrated selected associations between autoimmune conditions and mental illness.

“These associations may be the result of shared genetic and environmental risk factors, including stress, hormonal changes, medications, and the proinflammatory states that can lead to both,” he said.

The novelty, he said, is in the relatively strong associations of PND with autoimmune disease overall and with specific autoimmune diseases.
 

Strong Link Found With Multiple Sclerosis (MS)

According to the paper, a significant positive bidirectional link was found for autoimmune thyroid disease, psoriasis, MS, ulcerative colitis, and celiac disease.

Researchers found a particularly strong association — double the risk in both directions — between PND and MS.

Dr. Miller said though it is unclear from this study why the association of PND with MS was stronger than with other autoimmune diseases, people with MS are known to be at a high risk for depression in general. That may come from greater shared genetic and environmental risk factors, he added.

Additionally, MS is one of the more common autoimmune diseases, he noted, so the population is larger for study.

He said he was surprised the researchers didn’t investigate medication use because medications used in depression have immunologic effects and medications used in autoimmune diseases could have effects on mental conditions.

The study has implications for clinicians in a wide variety of specialties, Dr. Miller noted.

“It suggests that caregivers be more alert to the signs of developing autoimmune disease in women with perinatal depression and to the signs of developing perinatal depression in those with autoimmune disease,” Dr. Miller said, “so that appropriate screening, diagnostics, and interventions may be undertaken.”

The researchers say they will continue to examine the long-term effects of depression during pregnancy and in the year after childbirth.

“Depression during this sensitive period can have serious consequences for both the mother and the baby,” Dr. Bränn said. “We hope that our results will help decision-makers to steer funding toward maternal healthcare so that more women can get help and support in time.”

The study was financed by Karolinska Institute, Forte (the Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare), the Swedish Research Council, and the Icelandic Research Fund.

The researchers and Dr. Miller reported no relevant financial relationships.

A version of this article appeared on Medscape.com.

Women with autoimmune disease are more likely to have perinatal depression (PND), according to findings from a new study that also suggested the reverse relationship is true: Women with a history of PND have a higher risk of developing autoimmune disease.

The research, published online on January 9, 2024, in Molecular Psychiatry, was led by Emma Bränn, PhD, Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden.

The researchers used data from the Swedish Medical Birth Register and identified all women who had given birth in Sweden between 2001 and 2013. Out of the group of approximately 815,000 women and 1.3 million pregnancies, just more than 55,000 women had been diagnosed with depression during their pregnancy or within a year after delivery.

The researchers then compared the incidence of 41 autoimmune diseases in women who had and did not have PND. They controlled for factors including genetic makeup and childhood environment.

Results indicated that women with autoimmune disease were 30% more likely to have PND (odds ratio, 1.30; 95% CI, 1.25-1.35). Conversely, women with PND were 30% more likely than women with no PND to develop an autoimmune disease (hazard ratio, 1.30; 95% CI, 1.25-1.36).

A sibling comparison helped confirm the results by controlling for some shared genetic and early life environmental factors related to the household in which sisters grew up.
 

Potential Shared Biological Mechanisms

The association was independent of psychiatric comorbidities, suggesting there may be shared biological mechanisms.

Dr. Bränn told this news organization that the research team wanted to do the study because previous research has shown involvement of the immune system in depression, with similarities in both the symptoms of immune system–activated diseases and depression and the molecular pathways activated by the immune system.

“Adding on top of the tremendous changes in the immune system that we see in the body of the woman during the perinatal period, we hypothesized that autoimmune diseases could be associated to perinatal depression,” she said. “This had also been shown in some previous literature but not to the extent as what we have investigated in this paper.”

She said their results help make a case for counseling women at several points in healthcare interactions — before and after conception and childbirth — and in rheumatology visits to inform women with autoimmune diseases who are contemplating motherhood of the association with developing PND. The results may also demonstrate a need for monitoring women in these groups for depression or autoimmune disease.

Fred Miller, MD, PhD, retired Scientist Emeritus of the Environmental Autoimmunity Group at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, who was not part of the study, said the results seem plausible as they build on early work that demonstrated selected associations between autoimmune conditions and mental illness.

“These associations may be the result of shared genetic and environmental risk factors, including stress, hormonal changes, medications, and the proinflammatory states that can lead to both,” he said.

The novelty, he said, is in the relatively strong associations of PND with autoimmune disease overall and with specific autoimmune diseases.
 

Strong Link Found With Multiple Sclerosis (MS)

According to the paper, a significant positive bidirectional link was found for autoimmune thyroid disease, psoriasis, MS, ulcerative colitis, and celiac disease.

Researchers found a particularly strong association — double the risk in both directions — between PND and MS.

Dr. Miller said though it is unclear from this study why the association of PND with MS was stronger than with other autoimmune diseases, people with MS are known to be at a high risk for depression in general. That may come from greater shared genetic and environmental risk factors, he added.

Additionally, MS is one of the more common autoimmune diseases, he noted, so the population is larger for study.

He said he was surprised the researchers didn’t investigate medication use because medications used in depression have immunologic effects and medications used in autoimmune diseases could have effects on mental conditions.

The study has implications for clinicians in a wide variety of specialties, Dr. Miller noted.

“It suggests that caregivers be more alert to the signs of developing autoimmune disease in women with perinatal depression and to the signs of developing perinatal depression in those with autoimmune disease,” Dr. Miller said, “so that appropriate screening, diagnostics, and interventions may be undertaken.”

The researchers say they will continue to examine the long-term effects of depression during pregnancy and in the year after childbirth.

“Depression during this sensitive period can have serious consequences for both the mother and the baby,” Dr. Bränn said. “We hope that our results will help decision-makers to steer funding toward maternal healthcare so that more women can get help and support in time.”

The study was financed by Karolinska Institute, Forte (the Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare), the Swedish Research Council, and the Icelandic Research Fund.

The researchers and Dr. Miller reported no relevant financial relationships.

A version of this article appeared on Medscape.com.

Women with autoimmune disease are more likely to have perinatal depression (PND), according to findings from a new study that also suggested the reverse relationship is true: Women with a history of PND have a higher risk of developing autoimmune disease.

The research, published online on January 9, 2024, in Molecular Psychiatry, was led by Emma Bränn, PhD, Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden.

The researchers used data from the Swedish Medical Birth Register and identified all women who had given birth in Sweden between 2001 and 2013. Out of the group of approximately 815,000 women and 1.3 million pregnancies, just more than 55,000 women had been diagnosed with depression during their pregnancy or within a year after delivery.

The researchers then compared the incidence of 41 autoimmune diseases in women who had and did not have PND. They controlled for factors including genetic makeup and childhood environment.

Results indicated that women with autoimmune disease were 30% more likely to have PND (odds ratio, 1.30; 95% CI, 1.25-1.35). Conversely, women with PND were 30% more likely than women with no PND to develop an autoimmune disease (hazard ratio, 1.30; 95% CI, 1.25-1.36).

A sibling comparison helped confirm the results by controlling for some shared genetic and early life environmental factors related to the household in which sisters grew up.
 

Potential Shared Biological Mechanisms

The association was independent of psychiatric comorbidities, suggesting there may be shared biological mechanisms.

Dr. Bränn told this news organization that the research team wanted to do the study because previous research has shown involvement of the immune system in depression, with similarities in both the symptoms of immune system–activated diseases and depression and the molecular pathways activated by the immune system.

“Adding on top of the tremendous changes in the immune system that we see in the body of the woman during the perinatal period, we hypothesized that autoimmune diseases could be associated to perinatal depression,” she said. “This had also been shown in some previous literature but not to the extent as what we have investigated in this paper.”

She said their results help make a case for counseling women at several points in healthcare interactions — before and after conception and childbirth — and in rheumatology visits to inform women with autoimmune diseases who are contemplating motherhood of the association with developing PND. The results may also demonstrate a need for monitoring women in these groups for depression or autoimmune disease.

Fred Miller, MD, PhD, retired Scientist Emeritus of the Environmental Autoimmunity Group at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, who was not part of the study, said the results seem plausible as they build on early work that demonstrated selected associations between autoimmune conditions and mental illness.

“These associations may be the result of shared genetic and environmental risk factors, including stress, hormonal changes, medications, and the proinflammatory states that can lead to both,” he said.

The novelty, he said, is in the relatively strong associations of PND with autoimmune disease overall and with specific autoimmune diseases.
 

Strong Link Found With Multiple Sclerosis (MS)

According to the paper, a significant positive bidirectional link was found for autoimmune thyroid disease, psoriasis, MS, ulcerative colitis, and celiac disease.

Researchers found a particularly strong association — double the risk in both directions — between PND and MS.

Dr. Miller said though it is unclear from this study why the association of PND with MS was stronger than with other autoimmune diseases, people with MS are known to be at a high risk for depression in general. That may come from greater shared genetic and environmental risk factors, he added.

Additionally, MS is one of the more common autoimmune diseases, he noted, so the population is larger for study.

He said he was surprised the researchers didn’t investigate medication use because medications used in depression have immunologic effects and medications used in autoimmune diseases could have effects on mental conditions.

The study has implications for clinicians in a wide variety of specialties, Dr. Miller noted.

“It suggests that caregivers be more alert to the signs of developing autoimmune disease in women with perinatal depression and to the signs of developing perinatal depression in those with autoimmune disease,” Dr. Miller said, “so that appropriate screening, diagnostics, and interventions may be undertaken.”

The researchers say they will continue to examine the long-term effects of depression during pregnancy and in the year after childbirth.

“Depression during this sensitive period can have serious consequences for both the mother and the baby,” Dr. Bränn said. “We hope that our results will help decision-makers to steer funding toward maternal healthcare so that more women can get help and support in time.”

The study was financed by Karolinska Institute, Forte (the Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare), the Swedish Research Council, and the Icelandic Research Fund.

The researchers and Dr. Miller reported no relevant financial relationships.

A version of this article appeared on Medscape.com.

Depression, constipation, cystitis/urinary tract infections (UTIs), and sexual dysfunction may be early warning signs of multiple sclerosis (MS) 5 years prior to diagnosis, new research shows.

However, these prodromal symptoms are also more likely to occur in people with two other autoimmune diseases — lupus and Crohn’s disease — and therefore, will not help earlier diagnosis, study investigator, Céline Louapre, professor of neurology, Sorbonne University and Paris Brain Institute, Paris, France, said in an interview.

“On the other hand, in certain patients who may be at particular risk of developing MS, such as in certain familial forms or in patients with incidental inflammatory lesions discovered on MRI, the presence of these symptoms could suggest an already active process, prior to the first typical symptoms of the disease,” she noted.
 

Retracing MS Origins

The case-control study, published online in Neurology, included 20,174 people with newly diagnosed MS who were matched to 54,790 without MS, as well as 30,477 with Crohn’s disease and 7337 with lupus.

Using International Classification of Diseases, 10th revision (ICD-10) codes in electronic health records, the researchers assessed the associations between 113 diseases and symptoms in the 5 years before and after an MS diagnosis.

Twelve ICD-10 codes were significantly positively associated with the risk for MS compared with controls without MS.

After considering ICD-10 codes suggestive of neurologic symptoms as the first diagnosis of MS, the following five ICD-10 codes remained significantly associated with MS:

• Depression (odds ratio [OR], 1.22; 95% CI, 1.11-1.34)
• Sexual dysfunction (OR, 1.47; 95% CI, 1.11-1.95)
• Constipation (OR, 1.5; 95% CI, 1.27-1.78)
• Cystitis (OR, 1.21; 95% CI, 1.05-1.39)
• UTIs of unspecified site (OR, 1.38; 95% CI, 1.18-1.61)

However, none of these conditions was selectively associated with MS in comparison with both lupus and Crohn’s disease. All five ICD-10 codes identified were still associated with MS during the 5 years after diagnosis.

“The importance of investigating prodromal signs in MS is that it allows us to retrace the origins of the disease,” said Dr. Louapre.

“The main contribution of the data on prodromes in MS is to clarify that the disease and its mechanisms are frequently underway well before the first typical neurological symptoms, and that the causes of MS are probably present many years before diagnosis,” she added.

A limitation of the study was that data were not available for other factors that could influence people’s risk of developing MS, such as education level, ethnicity, body mass index, socioeconomic status, or genetic information.

It also remains unclear whether the conditions linked to MS are risk factors for the disease or nonspecific early MS symptoms.
 

Preventing Disease Evolution

In a linked editorial, Ruth Ann Marrie, MD, PhD, with the University of Manitoba, Manitoba, Canada, and Raffaele Palladino, MD, PhD, with the University of Naples Federico II, Naples, Italy, note these findings highlight the challenges of accurately identifying the prodromal stage of a specific disease.

“Commonalities of prodromal features are recognized across neurodegenerative diseases; this is also true for immune-mediated diseases, and it is not surprising, given shared etiologic factors and pathobiological mechanisms,” they point out.

“This suggests that we should be trying to link prodromal features to specific underlying pathobiological changes rather than specific diseases. This approach would require use of different study designs, including broad, deeply phenotyped cohorts, but would allow us to develop and test interventions targeted at those mechanisms, and could ultimately achieve the goal of preventing disease evolution,” they add.

The study was supported by the French National Research Agency. Dr. Louapre has received consulting or travel fees from Biogen, Novartis, Roche, Sanofi, Teva, and Merck Serono, unrelated to this study. Dr. Marrie is a coinvestigator on studies receiving funding from Biogen Idec and Roche Canada; receives research funding from CIHR, Research Manitoba, Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada, Multiple Sclerosis Scientific Foundation, Crohn’s and Colitis Canada, National Multiple Sclerosis Society, CMSC, the Arthritis Society and the US Department of Defense; and serves on the editorial board of Neurology. Dr. Palladino has taken part in advisory boards/consultancy for MSD and Sanofi and has received support from the UK MS Society.

A version of this article appeared on Medscape.com.

Depression, constipation, cystitis/urinary tract infections (UTIs), and sexual dysfunction may be early warning signs of multiple sclerosis (MS) 5 years prior to diagnosis, new research shows.

However, these prodromal symptoms are also more likely to occur in people with two other autoimmune diseases — lupus and Crohn’s disease — and therefore, will not help earlier diagnosis, study investigator, Céline Louapre, professor of neurology, Sorbonne University and Paris Brain Institute, Paris, France, said in an interview.

“On the other hand, in certain patients who may be at particular risk of developing MS, such as in certain familial forms or in patients with incidental inflammatory lesions discovered on MRI, the presence of these symptoms could suggest an already active process, prior to the first typical symptoms of the disease,” she noted.
 

Retracing MS Origins

The case-control study, published online in Neurology, included 20,174 people with newly diagnosed MS who were matched to 54,790 without MS, as well as 30,477 with Crohn’s disease and 7337 with lupus.

Using International Classification of Diseases, 10th revision (ICD-10) codes in electronic health records, the researchers assessed the associations between 113 diseases and symptoms in the 5 years before and after an MS diagnosis.

Twelve ICD-10 codes were significantly positively associated with the risk for MS compared with controls without MS.

After considering ICD-10 codes suggestive of neurologic symptoms as the first diagnosis of MS, the following five ICD-10 codes remained significantly associated with MS:

• Depression (odds ratio [OR], 1.22; 95% CI, 1.11-1.34)
• Sexual dysfunction (OR, 1.47; 95% CI, 1.11-1.95)
• Constipation (OR, 1.5; 95% CI, 1.27-1.78)
• Cystitis (OR, 1.21; 95% CI, 1.05-1.39)
• UTIs of unspecified site (OR, 1.38; 95% CI, 1.18-1.61)

However, none of these conditions was selectively associated with MS in comparison with both lupus and Crohn’s disease. All five ICD-10 codes identified were still associated with MS during the 5 years after diagnosis.

“The importance of investigating prodromal signs in MS is that it allows us to retrace the origins of the disease,” said Dr. Louapre.

“The main contribution of the data on prodromes in MS is to clarify that the disease and its mechanisms are frequently underway well before the first typical neurological symptoms, and that the causes of MS are probably present many years before diagnosis,” she added.

A limitation of the study was that data were not available for other factors that could influence people’s risk of developing MS, such as education level, ethnicity, body mass index, socioeconomic status, or genetic information.

It also remains unclear whether the conditions linked to MS are risk factors for the disease or nonspecific early MS symptoms.
 

Preventing Disease Evolution

In a linked editorial, Ruth Ann Marrie, MD, PhD, with the University of Manitoba, Manitoba, Canada, and Raffaele Palladino, MD, PhD, with the University of Naples Federico II, Naples, Italy, note these findings highlight the challenges of accurately identifying the prodromal stage of a specific disease.

“Commonalities of prodromal features are recognized across neurodegenerative diseases; this is also true for immune-mediated diseases, and it is not surprising, given shared etiologic factors and pathobiological mechanisms,” they point out.

“This suggests that we should be trying to link prodromal features to specific underlying pathobiological changes rather than specific diseases. This approach would require use of different study designs, including broad, deeply phenotyped cohorts, but would allow us to develop and test interventions targeted at those mechanisms, and could ultimately achieve the goal of preventing disease evolution,” they add.

The study was supported by the French National Research Agency. Dr. Louapre has received consulting or travel fees from Biogen, Novartis, Roche, Sanofi, Teva, and Merck Serono, unrelated to this study. Dr. Marrie is a coinvestigator on studies receiving funding from Biogen Idec and Roche Canada; receives research funding from CIHR, Research Manitoba, Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada, Multiple Sclerosis Scientific Foundation, Crohn’s and Colitis Canada, National Multiple Sclerosis Society, CMSC, the Arthritis Society and the US Department of Defense; and serves on the editorial board of Neurology. Dr. Palladino has taken part in advisory boards/consultancy for MSD and Sanofi and has received support from the UK MS Society.

A version of this article appeared on Medscape.com.

Depression, constipation, cystitis/urinary tract infections (UTIs), and sexual dysfunction may be early warning signs of multiple sclerosis (MS) 5 years prior to diagnosis, new research shows.

However, these prodromal symptoms are also more likely to occur in people with two other autoimmune diseases — lupus and Crohn’s disease — and therefore, will not help earlier diagnosis, study investigator, Céline Louapre, professor of neurology, Sorbonne University and Paris Brain Institute, Paris, France, said in an interview.

“On the other hand, in certain patients who may be at particular risk of developing MS, such as in certain familial forms or in patients with incidental inflammatory lesions discovered on MRI, the presence of these symptoms could suggest an already active process, prior to the first typical symptoms of the disease,” she noted.
 

Retracing MS Origins

The case-control study, published online in Neurology, included 20,174 people with newly diagnosed MS who were matched to 54,790 without MS, as well as 30,477 with Crohn’s disease and 7337 with lupus.

Using International Classification of Diseases, 10th revision (ICD-10) codes in electronic health records, the researchers assessed the associations between 113 diseases and symptoms in the 5 years before and after an MS diagnosis.

Twelve ICD-10 codes were significantly positively associated with the risk for MS compared with controls without MS.

After considering ICD-10 codes suggestive of neurologic symptoms as the first diagnosis of MS, the following five ICD-10 codes remained significantly associated with MS:

• Depression (odds ratio [OR], 1.22; 95% CI, 1.11-1.34)
• Sexual dysfunction (OR, 1.47; 95% CI, 1.11-1.95)
• Constipation (OR, 1.5; 95% CI, 1.27-1.78)
• Cystitis (OR, 1.21; 95% CI, 1.05-1.39)
• UTIs of unspecified site (OR, 1.38; 95% CI, 1.18-1.61)

However, none of these conditions was selectively associated with MS in comparison with both lupus and Crohn’s disease. All five ICD-10 codes identified were still associated with MS during the 5 years after diagnosis.

“The importance of investigating prodromal signs in MS is that it allows us to retrace the origins of the disease,” said Dr. Louapre.

“The main contribution of the data on prodromes in MS is to clarify that the disease and its mechanisms are frequently underway well before the first typical neurological symptoms, and that the causes of MS are probably present many years before diagnosis,” she added.

A limitation of the study was that data were not available for other factors that could influence people’s risk of developing MS, such as education level, ethnicity, body mass index, socioeconomic status, or genetic information.

It also remains unclear whether the conditions linked to MS are risk factors for the disease or nonspecific early MS symptoms.
 

Preventing Disease Evolution

In a linked editorial, Ruth Ann Marrie, MD, PhD, with the University of Manitoba, Manitoba, Canada, and Raffaele Palladino, MD, PhD, with the University of Naples Federico II, Naples, Italy, note these findings highlight the challenges of accurately identifying the prodromal stage of a specific disease.

“Commonalities of prodromal features are recognized across neurodegenerative diseases; this is also true for immune-mediated diseases, and it is not surprising, given shared etiologic factors and pathobiological mechanisms,” they point out.

“This suggests that we should be trying to link prodromal features to specific underlying pathobiological changes rather than specific diseases. This approach would require use of different study designs, including broad, deeply phenotyped cohorts, but would allow us to develop and test interventions targeted at those mechanisms, and could ultimately achieve the goal of preventing disease evolution,” they add.

The study was supported by the French National Research Agency. Dr. Louapre has received consulting or travel fees from Biogen, Novartis, Roche, Sanofi, Teva, and Merck Serono, unrelated to this study. Dr. Marrie is a coinvestigator on studies receiving funding from Biogen Idec and Roche Canada; receives research funding from CIHR, Research Manitoba, Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada, Multiple Sclerosis Scientific Foundation, Crohn’s and Colitis Canada, National Multiple Sclerosis Society, CMSC, the Arthritis Society and the US Department of Defense; and serves on the editorial board of Neurology. Dr. Palladino has taken part in advisory boards/consultancy for MSD and Sanofi and has received support from the UK MS Society.

A version of this article appeared on Medscape.com.

A blood test that measures elevations in neurofilament light chain (NfL) levels in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) could warn of worsening disability up to 2 years before it occurs, a new study suggests.

Rising NfL levels are a known indicator of neuroaxonal injury and correlate with MS disease activity. Levels rise in the presence of an MS relapse or MRI activity and fall following treatment with disease-modifying therapies. But the link between NfL levels and worsening disability was less understood.

This new analysis of NfL in two large MS cohorts found that elevated levels of the neuronal protein at baseline were associated with large increases in future disability risk, even in patients with no clinical relapse.

“This rising of NfL up to 2 years before signs of disability worsening represents the window when interventions may prevent worsening,” lead investigator Ahmed Abdelhak, MD, department of neurology, University of California, San Francisco, said in a press release.

The findings were published online in JAMA Neurology.
 

Early warning system?

The study included data on 1,899 patients with nearly 13,000 patient visits from two observational, long-term, real-world cohorts: the U.S.-based Expression, Proteomics, Imaging, Clinical (EPIC) study (n = 609 patients), and the Swiss Multiple Sclerosis Cohort trial (SMSC; n = 1,290 patients).

Investigators analyzed longitudinal serum NfL measurements in conjunction with clinical disability worsening, defined as 6 months or more of increased impairment as measured by the Expanded Disability Status Scale.

Researchers also assessed the temporal association between NfL measurements and the risk of increased disability and distinguished between disability with and without relapse.

Worsening disability was reported in 227 patients in the EPIC group and 435 in the SMSC trial.

Elevated NfL at baseline was associated with a 70% higher risk for worsening disability with relapse about 11 months later in the SMSC study (hazard ratio, 1.70; P = .02). In the EPIC trial, there was trend toward a 91% higher risk for worsening disability with relapse at 12.6 months, although the findings did not meet statistical significance (HR, 1.91; P = .07).

The risk of future disability progression independent of clinical relapse was 40% higher in those with high NfL at baseline in the EPIC study 12 months after baseline (HR, 1.40; P = .02) and 49% higher in the SMSC trial 21 months later (HR, 1.49; P < .001).

The early elevation of NfL levels suggests a slower degradation of nerve cells and could be a possible early warning system of future progression of disability, allowing time for interventions that could slow or even halt further disability.

“Monitoring NfL levels might be able to detect disease activity with higher sensitivity than clinical exam or conventional imaging,” senior author Jens Kuhle, MD, PhD, leader of the Swiss cohort and head of the Multiple Sclerosis Center at University Hospital and University of Basel, said in a statement.
 

Challenges for clinicians

Commenting on the findings, Robert Fox, MD, staff neurologist at the Mellen Center for MS and vice chair for research, Neurological Institute, Cleveland Clinic, said that, while there is a clinical test to measure NfL levels, incorporating that test into standard of care isn’t straightforward.

“The challenge for the practicing clinician is to translate these population-level studies to individual patient management decisions,” said Dr. Fox, who was not a part of the study.

“The published prediction curves corrected for age, sex, disease course, disease-modifying treatment, relapse within the past 90 days, and current disability status, the combination of which makes it rather challenging to calculate and interpret adjusted z score NfL levels in routine practice and then use it in clinical decision-making.”

The investigators said the study underscores the importance of NfL as an MS biomarker and “points to the existence of different windows of dynamic central nervous system pathology” that precedes worsening disability with or without relapse. But there may be a simpler explanation, Dr. Fox suggested.

“We know MRI activity occurs 5-10 times more frequently than relapses, and we know that MRI activity is associated with both NfL increases and future disability progression,” Dr. Fox said. “It is quite likely that the elevations in NfL seen here are reflective of new MRI disease activity, which frequently is seen without symptoms of an MS relapse,” he said

The study was funded by the Westridge Foundation, F. Hoffmann–La Roche, the Fishman Family, the Swiss National Research Foundation, the National Institutes of Health/National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, and the Valhalla Foundation. Dr. Abdelhak reported receiving grants from the German Multiple Sclerosis Society and the Weill Institute for Neurosciences outside the submitted work. Dr. Kuhle has received grants from Swiss MS Society, the Swiss National Research Foundation, the Progressive MS Alliance, Biogen, Merck, Celgene, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Novartis, Octave Bioscience, Roche, Sanofi, Alnylam, Bayer, Immunic, Quanterix, Neurogenesis, Stata DX, and the University of Basel outside the submitted work. Dr. Fox reported receiving consulting fees from Siemens and Roche.

A version of this article appeared on Medscape.com.

A blood test that measures elevations in neurofilament light chain (NfL) levels in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) could warn of worsening disability up to 2 years before it occurs, a new study suggests.

Rising NfL levels are a known indicator of neuroaxonal injury and correlate with MS disease activity. Levels rise in the presence of an MS relapse or MRI activity and fall following treatment with disease-modifying therapies. But the link between NfL levels and worsening disability was less understood.

This new analysis of NfL in two large MS cohorts found that elevated levels of the neuronal protein at baseline were associated with large increases in future disability risk, even in patients with no clinical relapse.

“This rising of NfL up to 2 years before signs of disability worsening represents the window when interventions may prevent worsening,” lead investigator Ahmed Abdelhak, MD, department of neurology, University of California, San Francisco, said in a press release.

The findings were published online in JAMA Neurology.
 

Early warning system?

The study included data on 1,899 patients with nearly 13,000 patient visits from two observational, long-term, real-world cohorts: the U.S.-based Expression, Proteomics, Imaging, Clinical (EPIC) study (n = 609 patients), and the Swiss Multiple Sclerosis Cohort trial (SMSC; n = 1,290 patients).

Investigators analyzed longitudinal serum NfL measurements in conjunction with clinical disability worsening, defined as 6 months or more of increased impairment as measured by the Expanded Disability Status Scale.

Researchers also assessed the temporal association between NfL measurements and the risk of increased disability and distinguished between disability with and without relapse.

Worsening disability was reported in 227 patients in the EPIC group and 435 in the SMSC trial.

Elevated NfL at baseline was associated with a 70% higher risk for worsening disability with relapse about 11 months later in the SMSC study (hazard ratio, 1.70; P = .02). In the EPIC trial, there was trend toward a 91% higher risk for worsening disability with relapse at 12.6 months, although the findings did not meet statistical significance (HR, 1.91; P = .07).

The risk of future disability progression independent of clinical relapse was 40% higher in those with high NfL at baseline in the EPIC study 12 months after baseline (HR, 1.40; P = .02) and 49% higher in the SMSC trial 21 months later (HR, 1.49; P < .001).

The early elevation of NfL levels suggests a slower degradation of nerve cells and could be a possible early warning system of future progression of disability, allowing time for interventions that could slow or even halt further disability.

“Monitoring NfL levels might be able to detect disease activity with higher sensitivity than clinical exam or conventional imaging,” senior author Jens Kuhle, MD, PhD, leader of the Swiss cohort and head of the Multiple Sclerosis Center at University Hospital and University of Basel, said in a statement.
 

Challenges for clinicians

Commenting on the findings, Robert Fox, MD, staff neurologist at the Mellen Center for MS and vice chair for research, Neurological Institute, Cleveland Clinic, said that, while there is a clinical test to measure NfL levels, incorporating that test into standard of care isn’t straightforward.

“The challenge for the practicing clinician is to translate these population-level studies to individual patient management decisions,” said Dr. Fox, who was not a part of the study.

“The published prediction curves corrected for age, sex, disease course, disease-modifying treatment, relapse within the past 90 days, and current disability status, the combination of which makes it rather challenging to calculate and interpret adjusted z score NfL levels in routine practice and then use it in clinical decision-making.”

The investigators said the study underscores the importance of NfL as an MS biomarker and “points to the existence of different windows of dynamic central nervous system pathology” that precedes worsening disability with or without relapse. But there may be a simpler explanation, Dr. Fox suggested.

“We know MRI activity occurs 5-10 times more frequently than relapses, and we know that MRI activity is associated with both NfL increases and future disability progression,” Dr. Fox said. “It is quite likely that the elevations in NfL seen here are reflective of new MRI disease activity, which frequently is seen without symptoms of an MS relapse,” he said

The study was funded by the Westridge Foundation, F. Hoffmann–La Roche, the Fishman Family, the Swiss National Research Foundation, the National Institutes of Health/National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, and the Valhalla Foundation. Dr. Abdelhak reported receiving grants from the German Multiple Sclerosis Society and the Weill Institute for Neurosciences outside the submitted work. Dr. Kuhle has received grants from Swiss MS Society, the Swiss National Research Foundation, the Progressive MS Alliance, Biogen, Merck, Celgene, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Novartis, Octave Bioscience, Roche, Sanofi, Alnylam, Bayer, Immunic, Quanterix, Neurogenesis, Stata DX, and the University of Basel outside the submitted work. Dr. Fox reported receiving consulting fees from Siemens and Roche.

A version of this article appeared on Medscape.com.

A blood test that measures elevations in neurofilament light chain (NfL) levels in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) could warn of worsening disability up to 2 years before it occurs, a new study suggests.

Rising NfL levels are a known indicator of neuroaxonal injury and correlate with MS disease activity. Levels rise in the presence of an MS relapse or MRI activity and fall following treatment with disease-modifying therapies. But the link between NfL levels and worsening disability was less understood.

This new analysis of NfL in two large MS cohorts found that elevated levels of the neuronal protein at baseline were associated with large increases in future disability risk, even in patients with no clinical relapse.

“This rising of NfL up to 2 years before signs of disability worsening represents the window when interventions may prevent worsening,” lead investigator Ahmed Abdelhak, MD, department of neurology, University of California, San Francisco, said in a press release.

The findings were published online in JAMA Neurology.
 

Early warning system?

The study included data on 1,899 patients with nearly 13,000 patient visits from two observational, long-term, real-world cohorts: the U.S.-based Expression, Proteomics, Imaging, Clinical (EPIC) study (n = 609 patients), and the Swiss Multiple Sclerosis Cohort trial (SMSC; n = 1,290 patients).

Investigators analyzed longitudinal serum NfL measurements in conjunction with clinical disability worsening, defined as 6 months or more of increased impairment as measured by the Expanded Disability Status Scale.

Researchers also assessed the temporal association between NfL measurements and the risk of increased disability and distinguished between disability with and without relapse.

Worsening disability was reported in 227 patients in the EPIC group and 435 in the SMSC trial.

Elevated NfL at baseline was associated with a 70% higher risk for worsening disability with relapse about 11 months later in the SMSC study (hazard ratio, 1.70; P = .02). In the EPIC trial, there was trend toward a 91% higher risk for worsening disability with relapse at 12.6 months, although the findings did not meet statistical significance (HR, 1.91; P = .07).

The risk of future disability progression independent of clinical relapse was 40% higher in those with high NfL at baseline in the EPIC study 12 months after baseline (HR, 1.40; P = .02) and 49% higher in the SMSC trial 21 months later (HR, 1.49; P < .001).

The early elevation of NfL levels suggests a slower degradation of nerve cells and could be a possible early warning system of future progression of disability, allowing time for interventions that could slow or even halt further disability.

“Monitoring NfL levels might be able to detect disease activity with higher sensitivity than clinical exam or conventional imaging,” senior author Jens Kuhle, MD, PhD, leader of the Swiss cohort and head of the Multiple Sclerosis Center at University Hospital and University of Basel, said in a statement.
 

Challenges for clinicians

Commenting on the findings, Robert Fox, MD, staff neurologist at the Mellen Center for MS and vice chair for research, Neurological Institute, Cleveland Clinic, said that, while there is a clinical test to measure NfL levels, incorporating that test into standard of care isn’t straightforward.

“The challenge for the practicing clinician is to translate these population-level studies to individual patient management decisions,” said Dr. Fox, who was not a part of the study.

“The published prediction curves corrected for age, sex, disease course, disease-modifying treatment, relapse within the past 90 days, and current disability status, the combination of which makes it rather challenging to calculate and interpret adjusted z score NfL levels in routine practice and then use it in clinical decision-making.”

The investigators said the study underscores the importance of NfL as an MS biomarker and “points to the existence of different windows of dynamic central nervous system pathology” that precedes worsening disability with or without relapse. But there may be a simpler explanation, Dr. Fox suggested.

“We know MRI activity occurs 5-10 times more frequently than relapses, and we know that MRI activity is associated with both NfL increases and future disability progression,” Dr. Fox said. “It is quite likely that the elevations in NfL seen here are reflective of new MRI disease activity, which frequently is seen without symptoms of an MS relapse,” he said

The study was funded by the Westridge Foundation, F. Hoffmann–La Roche, the Fishman Family, the Swiss National Research Foundation, the National Institutes of Health/National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, and the Valhalla Foundation. Dr. Abdelhak reported receiving grants from the German Multiple Sclerosis Society and the Weill Institute for Neurosciences outside the submitted work. Dr. Kuhle has received grants from Swiss MS Society, the Swiss National Research Foundation, the Progressive MS Alliance, Biogen, Merck, Celgene, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Novartis, Octave Bioscience, Roche, Sanofi, Alnylam, Bayer, Immunic, Quanterix, Neurogenesis, Stata DX, and the University of Basel outside the submitted work. Dr. Fox reported receiving consulting fees from Siemens and Roche.

A version of this article appeared on Medscape.com.

PHOENIX – Artificial intelligence (AI) is poised to dramatically alter health care, and it presents opportunities for increased production and automation of some tasks. However, it is prone to error and ‘hallucinations’ despite an authoritative tone, so its conclusions must be verified.

Those were some of the messages from a talk by John Morren, MD, an associate professor of neurology at Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, who spoke about AI at the 2023 annual meeting of the American Association for Neuromuscular and Electrodiagnostic Medicine (AANEM).

He encouraged attendees to get involved in the conversation of AI, because it is here to stay and will have a big impact on health care. “If we’re not around the table making decisions, decisions will be made for us in our absence and won’t be in our favor,” said Dr. Morren.

He started out his talk by asking if anyone in the room had used AI. After about half raised their hands, he countered that nearly everyone likely had. Voice assistants like SIRI and Alexa, social media with curated feeds, online shopping tools that provide product suggestions, and content recommendations from streaming services like Netflix all rely on AI technology.

Within medicine, AI is already playing a role in various fields, including medical imaging, disease diagnosis, drug discovery and development, predictive analytics, personalized medicine, telemedicine, and health care management.

It also has potential to be used on the job. For example, ChatGPT can generate and refine conversations towards a specific length, format, style, and level of detail. Alternatives include Bing AI from Microsoft, Bard AI from Google, Writesonic, Copy.ai, SpinBot, HIX.AI, and Chatsonic.

Specific to medicine, Consensus is a search engine that uses AI to search for, summarize, and synthesize studies from peer-reviewed literature.
 

Trust, but verify

Dr. Morren presented some specific use cases, including patient education and responses to patient inquiries, as well as generating letters to insurance companies appealing denial of coverage claims. He also showed an example where he asked Bing AI to explain to a patient, at a sixth- to seventh-grade reading level, the red-flag symptoms of myasthenic crisis.

AI can generate summaries of clinical evidence of previous studies. Asked by this reporter how to trust the accuracies of the summaries if the user hasn’t thoroughly read the papers, he acknowledged the imperfection of AI. “I would say that if you’re going to make a decision that you would not have made normally based on the summary that it’s giving, if you can find the fact that you’re anchoring the decision on, go into the article yourself and make sure that it’s well vetted. The AI is just good to tap you on your shoulder and say, ‘hey, just consider this.’ That’s all it is. You should always trust, but verify. If the AI is forcing you to say something new that you would not say, maybe don’t do it – or at least research it to know that it’s the truth and then you elevate yourself and get yourself to the next level.”
 

Limitations

The need to verify can create its own burden, according to one attendee. “I often find I end up spending more time verifying [what ChatGPT has provided]. This seems to take more time than a traditional way of going to PubMed or UpToDate or any of the other human generated consensus way,” he said.

Dr. Morren replied that he wouldn’t recommend using ChatGPT to query medical literature. Instead he recommended Consensus, which only searches the peer-reviewed medical literature.

Another key limitation is that most AI programs are date limited: For example, ChatGPT doesn’t include information after September 2021, though this may change with paid subscriptions. He also starkly warned the audience to never enter sensitive information, including patient identifiers.

There are legal and ethical considerations to AI. Dr. Morren warned against overreliance on AI, as this could undermine compassion and lead to erosion of trust, which makes it important to disclose any use of AI-generated content.

Another attendee raised concerns that AI may be generating research content, including slides for presentations, abstracts, titles, or article text. Dr. Morren said that some organizations, such as the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors, have incorporated AI in their recommendations, stating that authors should disclose any contributions of AI to their publications. However, there is little that can be done to identify AI-generated content, leaving it up to the honor code.

Asked to make predictions about how AI will evolve in the clinic over the next 2-3 years, Dr. Morren suggested that it will likely be embedded in electronic medical records. He anticipated that it will save physicians time so that they can spend more time interacting directly with patients. He quoted Eric Topol, MD, professor of medicine at Scripps Research Translational Institute, La Jolla, Calif., as saying that AI could save 20% of a physician’s time, which could be spent with patients. Dr. Morren saw it differently. “I know where that 20% of time liberated is going to go. I’m going to see 20% more patients. I’m a realist,” he said, to audience laughter.

He also predicted that AI will be found in wearables and devices, allowing health care to expand into the patient’s home in real time. “A lot of what we’re wearing is going to be an extension of the doctor’s office,” he said.

For those hoping for more guidance, Dr. Morren noted that he is the chairman of the professional practice committee of AANEM, and the group will be putting out a position statement within the next couple of months. “It will be a little bit of a blueprint for the path going forward. There are specific things that need to be done. In research, for example, you have to ensure that datasets are diverse enough. To do that we need to have inter-institutional collaboration. We have to ensure patient privacy. Consent for this needs to be a little more explicit because this is a novel area. Those are things that need to be stipulated and ratified through a task force.”

Dr. Morren has no relevant financial disclosures.

PHOENIX – Artificial intelligence (AI) is poised to dramatically alter health care, and it presents opportunities for increased production and automation of some tasks. However, it is prone to error and ‘hallucinations’ despite an authoritative tone, so its conclusions must be verified.

Those were some of the messages from a talk by John Morren, MD, an associate professor of neurology at Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, who spoke about AI at the 2023 annual meeting of the American Association for Neuromuscular and Electrodiagnostic Medicine (AANEM).

He encouraged attendees to get involved in the conversation of AI, because it is here to stay and will have a big impact on health care. “If we’re not around the table making decisions, decisions will be made for us in our absence and won’t be in our favor,” said Dr. Morren.

He started out his talk by asking if anyone in the room had used AI. After about half raised their hands, he countered that nearly everyone likely had. Voice assistants like SIRI and Alexa, social media with curated feeds, online shopping tools that provide product suggestions, and content recommendations from streaming services like Netflix all rely on AI technology.

Within medicine, AI is already playing a role in various fields, including medical imaging, disease diagnosis, drug discovery and development, predictive analytics, personalized medicine, telemedicine, and health care management.

It also has potential to be used on the job. For example, ChatGPT can generate and refine conversations towards a specific length, format, style, and level of detail. Alternatives include Bing AI from Microsoft, Bard AI from Google, Writesonic, Copy.ai, SpinBot, HIX.AI, and Chatsonic.

Specific to medicine, Consensus is a search engine that uses AI to search for, summarize, and synthesize studies from peer-reviewed literature.
 

Trust, but verify

Dr. Morren presented some specific use cases, including patient education and responses to patient inquiries, as well as generating letters to insurance companies appealing denial of coverage claims. He also showed an example where he asked Bing AI to explain to a patient, at a sixth- to seventh-grade reading level, the red-flag symptoms of myasthenic crisis.

AI can generate summaries of clinical evidence of previous studies. Asked by this reporter how to trust the accuracies of the summaries if the user hasn’t thoroughly read the papers, he acknowledged the imperfection of AI. “I would say that if you’re going to make a decision that you would not have made normally based on the summary that it’s giving, if you can find the fact that you’re anchoring the decision on, go into the article yourself and make sure that it’s well vetted. The AI is just good to tap you on your shoulder and say, ‘hey, just consider this.’ That’s all it is. You should always trust, but verify. If the AI is forcing you to say something new that you would not say, maybe don’t do it – or at least research it to know that it’s the truth and then you elevate yourself and get yourself to the next level.”
 

Limitations

The need to verify can create its own burden, according to one attendee. “I often find I end up spending more time verifying [what ChatGPT has provided]. This seems to take more time than a traditional way of going to PubMed or UpToDate or any of the other human generated consensus way,” he said.

Dr. Morren replied that he wouldn’t recommend using ChatGPT to query medical literature. Instead he recommended Consensus, which only searches the peer-reviewed medical literature.

Another key limitation is that most AI programs are date limited: For example, ChatGPT doesn’t include information after September 2021, though this may change with paid subscriptions. He also starkly warned the audience to never enter sensitive information, including patient identifiers.

There are legal and ethical considerations to AI. Dr. Morren warned against overreliance on AI, as this could undermine compassion and lead to erosion of trust, which makes it important to disclose any use of AI-generated content.

Another attendee raised concerns that AI may be generating research content, including slides for presentations, abstracts, titles, or article text. Dr. Morren said that some organizations, such as the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors, have incorporated AI in their recommendations, stating that authors should disclose any contributions of AI to their publications. However, there is little that can be done to identify AI-generated content, leaving it up to the honor code.

Asked to make predictions about how AI will evolve in the clinic over the next 2-3 years, Dr. Morren suggested that it will likely be embedded in electronic medical records. He anticipated that it will save physicians time so that they can spend more time interacting directly with patients. He quoted Eric Topol, MD, professor of medicine at Scripps Research Translational Institute, La Jolla, Calif., as saying that AI could save 20% of a physician’s time, which could be spent with patients. Dr. Morren saw it differently. “I know where that 20% of time liberated is going to go. I’m going to see 20% more patients. I’m a realist,” he said, to audience laughter.

He also predicted that AI will be found in wearables and devices, allowing health care to expand into the patient’s home in real time. “A lot of what we’re wearing is going to be an extension of the doctor’s office,” he said.

For those hoping for more guidance, Dr. Morren noted that he is the chairman of the professional practice committee of AANEM, and the group will be putting out a position statement within the next couple of months. “It will be a little bit of a blueprint for the path going forward. There are specific things that need to be done. In research, for example, you have to ensure that datasets are diverse enough. To do that we need to have inter-institutional collaboration. We have to ensure patient privacy. Consent for this needs to be a little more explicit because this is a novel area. Those are things that need to be stipulated and ratified through a task force.”

Dr. Morren has no relevant financial disclosures.

PHOENIX – Artificial intelligence (AI) is poised to dramatically alter health care, and it presents opportunities for increased production and automation of some tasks. However, it is prone to error and ‘hallucinations’ despite an authoritative tone, so its conclusions must be verified.

Those were some of the messages from a talk by John Morren, MD, an associate professor of neurology at Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, who spoke about AI at the 2023 annual meeting of the American Association for Neuromuscular and Electrodiagnostic Medicine (AANEM).

He encouraged attendees to get involved in the conversation of AI, because it is here to stay and will have a big impact on health care. “If we’re not around the table making decisions, decisions will be made for us in our absence and won’t be in our favor,” said Dr. Morren.

He started out his talk by asking if anyone in the room had used AI. After about half raised their hands, he countered that nearly everyone likely had. Voice assistants like SIRI and Alexa, social media with curated feeds, online shopping tools that provide product suggestions, and content recommendations from streaming services like Netflix all rely on AI technology.

Within medicine, AI is already playing a role in various fields, including medical imaging, disease diagnosis, drug discovery and development, predictive analytics, personalized medicine, telemedicine, and health care management.

It also has potential to be used on the job. For example, ChatGPT can generate and refine conversations towards a specific length, format, style, and level of detail. Alternatives include Bing AI from Microsoft, Bard AI from Google, Writesonic, Copy.ai, SpinBot, HIX.AI, and Chatsonic.

Specific to medicine, Consensus is a search engine that uses AI to search for, summarize, and synthesize studies from peer-reviewed literature.
 

Trust, but verify

Dr. Morren presented some specific use cases, including patient education and responses to patient inquiries, as well as generating letters to insurance companies appealing denial of coverage claims. He also showed an example where he asked Bing AI to explain to a patient, at a sixth- to seventh-grade reading level, the red-flag symptoms of myasthenic crisis.

AI can generate summaries of clinical evidence of previous studies. Asked by this reporter how to trust the accuracies of the summaries if the user hasn’t thoroughly read the papers, he acknowledged the imperfection of AI. “I would say that if you’re going to make a decision that you would not have made normally based on the summary that it’s giving, if you can find the fact that you’re anchoring the decision on, go into the article yourself and make sure that it’s well vetted. The AI is just good to tap you on your shoulder and say, ‘hey, just consider this.’ That’s all it is. You should always trust, but verify. If the AI is forcing you to say something new that you would not say, maybe don’t do it – or at least research it to know that it’s the truth and then you elevate yourself and get yourself to the next level.”
 

Limitations

The need to verify can create its own burden, according to one attendee. “I often find I end up spending more time verifying [what ChatGPT has provided]. This seems to take more time than a traditional way of going to PubMed or UpToDate or any of the other human generated consensus way,” he said.

Dr. Morren replied that he wouldn’t recommend using ChatGPT to query medical literature. Instead he recommended Consensus, which only searches the peer-reviewed medical literature.

Another key limitation is that most AI programs are date limited: For example, ChatGPT doesn’t include information after September 2021, though this may change with paid subscriptions. He also starkly warned the audience to never enter sensitive information, including patient identifiers.

There are legal and ethical considerations to AI. Dr. Morren warned against overreliance on AI, as this could undermine compassion and lead to erosion of trust, which makes it important to disclose any use of AI-generated content.

Another attendee raised concerns that AI may be generating research content, including slides for presentations, abstracts, titles, or article text. Dr. Morren said that some organizations, such as the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors, have incorporated AI in their recommendations, stating that authors should disclose any contributions of AI to their publications. However, there is little that can be done to identify AI-generated content, leaving it up to the honor code.

Asked to make predictions about how AI will evolve in the clinic over the next 2-3 years, Dr. Morren suggested that it will likely be embedded in electronic medical records. He anticipated that it will save physicians time so that they can spend more time interacting directly with patients. He quoted Eric Topol, MD, professor of medicine at Scripps Research Translational Institute, La Jolla, Calif., as saying that AI could save 20% of a physician’s time, which could be spent with patients. Dr. Morren saw it differently. “I know where that 20% of time liberated is going to go. I’m going to see 20% more patients. I’m a realist,” he said, to audience laughter.

He also predicted that AI will be found in wearables and devices, allowing health care to expand into the patient’s home in real time. “A lot of what we’re wearing is going to be an extension of the doctor’s office,” he said.

For those hoping for more guidance, Dr. Morren noted that he is the chairman of the professional practice committee of AANEM, and the group will be putting out a position statement within the next couple of months. “It will be a little bit of a blueprint for the path going forward. There are specific things that need to be done. In research, for example, you have to ensure that datasets are diverse enough. To do that we need to have inter-institutional collaboration. We have to ensure patient privacy. Consent for this needs to be a little more explicit because this is a novel area. Those are things that need to be stipulated and ratified through a task force.”

Dr. Morren has no relevant financial disclosures.

MILAN – Subcutaneous administration of anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody therapy offers ongoing clinical efficacy in the management of patients with relapsing and primary progressive multiple sclerosis (MS), suggest results from two clinical trials.

For OCARINA II, more than 325 patients with MS were randomly assigned to either subcutaneous or intravenous treatment with the anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody ocrelizumab (Ocrevus).

After 24 weeks, the presence of lesions on imaging and the occurrence of clinical remissions were almost completely suppressed by both treatments albeit with a higher rate of mild to moderate injection reactions with subcutaneous administration.

The study “makes me feel pretty comfortable that regardless of where you’re delivering the therapy, IV or subcutaneously, it’s getting in there and doing the job that we want it to do,” said lead author Scott D. Newsome, DO, director, Stiff Person Syndrome Center, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore.

The second study, OLIKOS, involved just over 100 patients with relapsing MS who had previously been treated with an anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody and were switched to subcutaneous therapy with another: ofatumumab (Arzerra).

Le H. Hua, MD, Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health, Las Vegas, and colleagues report that the novel treatment maintained clinical efficacy in all patients, with no safety concerns and no changes in serum immunoglobulin levels.

The findings were presented at the 9th Joint ECTRIMS-ACTRIMS meeting.
 

Anti-CD20–naive

OCARINA II involved patients aged 18-65 years with relapsing or primary progressive MS who had never received ocrelizumab or any other anti-CD20 therapy and had an Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) score of 0.0-6.5.

They were randomly assigned to subcutaneous or IV ocrelizumab as a first dose. At week 24, all patients were scheduled to receive subcutaneous ocrelizumab every 24 weeks up to week 96.

In all, 326 patients were randomly assigned to the two treatment arms. They had a mean age of approximately 40 years, and 59.3%-65.3% were women. The mean time since symptom onset was 6.8-7.7 years, and the mean EDSS score at baseline was 2.5-3.0. The majority (89.8%-89.0%) had relapsing MS.

The results showed that subcutaneous and IV administration led to similar exposure to ocrelizumab, and both resulted in rapid reduction in CD19+ B-cell counts.

By week 24, the mean number of lesions on MRI reduced to zero, resulting in “near-complete suppression” of disease activity, the team says, which was reflected in 99% of patients have no clinical evidence of relapse.

The overall adverse event rate was higher with subcutaneous vs. IV administration of ocrelizumab, at 73.7% vs. 45.8%, driven by both local and systemic injection reactions, which were mild to moderate in nature.

However, a similar proportion of patients in the subcutaneous and IV arms experienced serious adverse events, at 2.5% and 3.4%, respectively.

Crucially, the patients were “overwhelmingly positive” about the subcutaneous administration, Dr. Newsome said, and at his institution, “all the patients want to continue, if and when this gets approved.”

He said that, overall, he would like to have both routes available “because, coming down to patient preference, some prefer to have IV over subcutaneous in general, and that could be for a variety of reasons, so I would love to have as many different routes of administration as possible to offer.”
 

Efficacy maintained

The OLIKOS trial included patients aged 18-60 years with relapsing MS who had received at least two consecutive courses of anti-CD20 therapy with either ocrelizumab or rituximab and who had an EDSS score ≤ 5.5 and were neurologically stable.

After an initial loading regimen of subcutaneous ofatumumab on days 1, 7, and 14, the patients continued open-label subcutaneous ofatumumab once a month for 12 months, with assessments carried out at baseline and at 1, 6, and 12 months.

Of 142 patients assessed, 102 received treatment and were evaluated. Their mean age was 43.5 years, and 67.6% were women. The mean baseline EDSS score was 2.9, and the mean disease duration since diagnosis was 9.4 years.

The vast majority of patients (99.0%) had previously received ocrelizumab for an average duration of 26.7 months.

At this interim analysis, 100% of the 77 patients with follow-up MRI met the primary endpoint at month 6 of no change or a reduction in the number of lesions.

The team says there were “no new safety signals,” with 75.5% of patients experiencing a treatment-emergent adverse event, but only 1.0% having a serious adverse event. Injection site reactions occurred in 7.8%; 15.7% had a systemic injection reaction.

They also report that there were no changes in IgG and IgM concentrations between baseline and follow-up, which remained within normal reference ranges.
 

Reassuring results

“It’s exciting to see reassuring results from clinical studies of two high-efficacy therapies for multiple sclerosis, especially given their route of administration,” commented Julie Fiol, LMSW, BSN, RN, MSCN, associate vice president of Clinical Innovation and Strategy for the U.S. National MS Society.

“Subcutaneous injections allow people with multiple sclerosis more flexibility when selecting a therapy that matches their lifestyle and preferences,” she said in an interview.

“Adherence to therapy is critical in multiple sclerosis, and additional options for route of administration and site of care enhance the likelihood that someone with multiple sclerosis will find a medication that effectively manages their disease and fits into their lifestyle,” Dr. Fiol explained.

“Subcutaneous injections also have the potential to be more affordable as they could be administered at home or over a shorter duration than an infused medication,” she noted.

In terms of these two particular studies, she added, “it’s reassuring to see that the safety and efficacy of subcutaneous ocrelizumab was similar to intravenous. It was also reassuring to see those who switched from ocrelizumab and rituximab to ofatumumab remained clinically stable.”

OCARINA II was supported by F. Hoffmann-La Roche. OLIKOS was supported by Novartis. Dr. Newsome declares relationships with Biogen, Genentech, Bristol-Myers Squibb, EMD Serono, Greenwich Biosciences, Horizon Therapeutics, Novartis, Roche, and TG Therapeutics and institutional relationships with Biogen, Lundbeck, Roche, Genentech, National MS Society, The Stiff Person Syndrome Research Foundation, Department of Defense, and the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute. Dr. Hua declares relationships with Alexion, Biogen, Bristol-Meyers Squibb, EMD Serono, Genentech, Genzyme, Greenwich Biosciences, Horizon Therapeutics, and Novartis. Other authors also declare relationships.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

MILAN – Subcutaneous administration of anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody therapy offers ongoing clinical efficacy in the management of patients with relapsing and primary progressive multiple sclerosis (MS), suggest results from two clinical trials.

For OCARINA II, more than 325 patients with MS were randomly assigned to either subcutaneous or intravenous treatment with the anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody ocrelizumab (Ocrevus).

After 24 weeks, the presence of lesions on imaging and the occurrence of clinical remissions were almost completely suppressed by both treatments albeit with a higher rate of mild to moderate injection reactions with subcutaneous administration.

The study “makes me feel pretty comfortable that regardless of where you’re delivering the therapy, IV or subcutaneously, it’s getting in there and doing the job that we want it to do,” said lead author Scott D. Newsome, DO, director, Stiff Person Syndrome Center, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore.

The second study, OLIKOS, involved just over 100 patients with relapsing MS who had previously been treated with an anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody and were switched to subcutaneous therapy with another: ofatumumab (Arzerra).

Le H. Hua, MD, Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health, Las Vegas, and colleagues report that the novel treatment maintained clinical efficacy in all patients, with no safety concerns and no changes in serum immunoglobulin levels.

The findings were presented at the 9th Joint ECTRIMS-ACTRIMS meeting.
 

Anti-CD20–naive

OCARINA II involved patients aged 18-65 years with relapsing or primary progressive MS who had never received ocrelizumab or any other anti-CD20 therapy and had an Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) score of 0.0-6.5.

They were randomly assigned to subcutaneous or IV ocrelizumab as a first dose. At week 24, all patients were scheduled to receive subcutaneous ocrelizumab every 24 weeks up to week 96.

In all, 326 patients were randomly assigned to the two treatment arms. They had a mean age of approximately 40 years, and 59.3%-65.3% were women. The mean time since symptom onset was 6.8-7.7 years, and the mean EDSS score at baseline was 2.5-3.0. The majority (89.8%-89.0%) had relapsing MS.

The results showed that subcutaneous and IV administration led to similar exposure to ocrelizumab, and both resulted in rapid reduction in CD19+ B-cell counts.

By week 24, the mean number of lesions on MRI reduced to zero, resulting in “near-complete suppression” of disease activity, the team says, which was reflected in 99% of patients have no clinical evidence of relapse.

The overall adverse event rate was higher with subcutaneous vs. IV administration of ocrelizumab, at 73.7% vs. 45.8%, driven by both local and systemic injection reactions, which were mild to moderate in nature.

However, a similar proportion of patients in the subcutaneous and IV arms experienced serious adverse events, at 2.5% and 3.4%, respectively.

Crucially, the patients were “overwhelmingly positive” about the subcutaneous administration, Dr. Newsome said, and at his institution, “all the patients want to continue, if and when this gets approved.”

He said that, overall, he would like to have both routes available “because, coming down to patient preference, some prefer to have IV over subcutaneous in general, and that could be for a variety of reasons, so I would love to have as many different routes of administration as possible to offer.”
 

Efficacy maintained

The OLIKOS trial included patients aged 18-60 years with relapsing MS who had received at least two consecutive courses of anti-CD20 therapy with either ocrelizumab or rituximab and who had an EDSS score ≤ 5.5 and were neurologically stable.

After an initial loading regimen of subcutaneous ofatumumab on days 1, 7, and 14, the patients continued open-label subcutaneous ofatumumab once a month for 12 months, with assessments carried out at baseline and at 1, 6, and 12 months.

Of 142 patients assessed, 102 received treatment and were evaluated. Their mean age was 43.5 years, and 67.6% were women. The mean baseline EDSS score was 2.9, and the mean disease duration since diagnosis was 9.4 years.

The vast majority of patients (99.0%) had previously received ocrelizumab for an average duration of 26.7 months.

At this interim analysis, 100% of the 77 patients with follow-up MRI met the primary endpoint at month 6 of no change or a reduction in the number of lesions.

The team says there were “no new safety signals,” with 75.5% of patients experiencing a treatment-emergent adverse event, but only 1.0% having a serious adverse event. Injection site reactions occurred in 7.8%; 15.7% had a systemic injection reaction.

They also report that there were no changes in IgG and IgM concentrations between baseline and follow-up, which remained within normal reference ranges.
 

Reassuring results

“It’s exciting to see reassuring results from clinical studies of two high-efficacy therapies for multiple sclerosis, especially given their route of administration,” commented Julie Fiol, LMSW, BSN, RN, MSCN, associate vice president of Clinical Innovation and Strategy for the U.S. National MS Society.

“Subcutaneous injections allow people with multiple sclerosis more flexibility when selecting a therapy that matches their lifestyle and preferences,” she said in an interview.

“Adherence to therapy is critical in multiple sclerosis, and additional options for route of administration and site of care enhance the likelihood that someone with multiple sclerosis will find a medication that effectively manages their disease and fits into their lifestyle,” Dr. Fiol explained.

“Subcutaneous injections also have the potential to be more affordable as they could be administered at home or over a shorter duration than an infused medication,” she noted.

In terms of these two particular studies, she added, “it’s reassuring to see that the safety and efficacy of subcutaneous ocrelizumab was similar to intravenous. It was also reassuring to see those who switched from ocrelizumab and rituximab to ofatumumab remained clinically stable.”

OCARINA II was supported by F. Hoffmann-La Roche. OLIKOS was supported by Novartis. Dr. Newsome declares relationships with Biogen, Genentech, Bristol-Myers Squibb, EMD Serono, Greenwich Biosciences, Horizon Therapeutics, Novartis, Roche, and TG Therapeutics and institutional relationships with Biogen, Lundbeck, Roche, Genentech, National MS Society, The Stiff Person Syndrome Research Foundation, Department of Defense, and the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute. Dr. Hua declares relationships with Alexion, Biogen, Bristol-Meyers Squibb, EMD Serono, Genentech, Genzyme, Greenwich Biosciences, Horizon Therapeutics, and Novartis. Other authors also declare relationships.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

MILAN – Subcutaneous administration of anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody therapy offers ongoing clinical efficacy in the management of patients with relapsing and primary progressive multiple sclerosis (MS), suggest results from two clinical trials.

For OCARINA II, more than 325 patients with MS were randomly assigned to either subcutaneous or intravenous treatment with the anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody ocrelizumab (Ocrevus).

After 24 weeks, the presence of lesions on imaging and the occurrence of clinical remissions were almost completely suppressed by both treatments albeit with a higher rate of mild to moderate injection reactions with subcutaneous administration.

The study “makes me feel pretty comfortable that regardless of where you’re delivering the therapy, IV or subcutaneously, it’s getting in there and doing the job that we want it to do,” said lead author Scott D. Newsome, DO, director, Stiff Person Syndrome Center, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore.

The second study, OLIKOS, involved just over 100 patients with relapsing MS who had previously been treated with an anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody and were switched to subcutaneous therapy with another: ofatumumab (Arzerra).

Le H. Hua, MD, Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health, Las Vegas, and colleagues report that the novel treatment maintained clinical efficacy in all patients, with no safety concerns and no changes in serum immunoglobulin levels.

The findings were presented at the 9th Joint ECTRIMS-ACTRIMS meeting.
 

Anti-CD20–naive

OCARINA II involved patients aged 18-65 years with relapsing or primary progressive MS who had never received ocrelizumab or any other anti-CD20 therapy and had an Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) score of 0.0-6.5.

They were randomly assigned to subcutaneous or IV ocrelizumab as a first dose. At week 24, all patients were scheduled to receive subcutaneous ocrelizumab every 24 weeks up to week 96.

In all, 326 patients were randomly assigned to the two treatment arms. They had a mean age of approximately 40 years, and 59.3%-65.3% were women. The mean time since symptom onset was 6.8-7.7 years, and the mean EDSS score at baseline was 2.5-3.0. The majority (89.8%-89.0%) had relapsing MS.

The results showed that subcutaneous and IV administration led to similar exposure to ocrelizumab, and both resulted in rapid reduction in CD19+ B-cell counts.

By week 24, the mean number of lesions on MRI reduced to zero, resulting in “near-complete suppression” of disease activity, the team says, which was reflected in 99% of patients have no clinical evidence of relapse.

The overall adverse event rate was higher with subcutaneous vs. IV administration of ocrelizumab, at 73.7% vs. 45.8%, driven by both local and systemic injection reactions, which were mild to moderate in nature.

However, a similar proportion of patients in the subcutaneous and IV arms experienced serious adverse events, at 2.5% and 3.4%, respectively.

Crucially, the patients were “overwhelmingly positive” about the subcutaneous administration, Dr. Newsome said, and at his institution, “all the patients want to continue, if and when this gets approved.”

He said that, overall, he would like to have both routes available “because, coming down to patient preference, some prefer to have IV over subcutaneous in general, and that could be for a variety of reasons, so I would love to have as many different routes of administration as possible to offer.”
 

Efficacy maintained

The OLIKOS trial included patients aged 18-60 years with relapsing MS who had received at least two consecutive courses of anti-CD20 therapy with either ocrelizumab or rituximab and who had an EDSS score ≤ 5.5 and were neurologically stable.

After an initial loading regimen of subcutaneous ofatumumab on days 1, 7, and 14, the patients continued open-label subcutaneous ofatumumab once a month for 12 months, with assessments carried out at baseline and at 1, 6, and 12 months.

Of 142 patients assessed, 102 received treatment and were evaluated. Their mean age was 43.5 years, and 67.6% were women. The mean baseline EDSS score was 2.9, and the mean disease duration since diagnosis was 9.4 years.

The vast majority of patients (99.0%) had previously received ocrelizumab for an average duration of 26.7 months.

At this interim analysis, 100% of the 77 patients with follow-up MRI met the primary endpoint at month 6 of no change or a reduction in the number of lesions.

The team says there were “no new safety signals,” with 75.5% of patients experiencing a treatment-emergent adverse event, but only 1.0% having a serious adverse event. Injection site reactions occurred in 7.8%; 15.7% had a systemic injection reaction.

They also report that there were no changes in IgG and IgM concentrations between baseline and follow-up, which remained within normal reference ranges.
 

Reassuring results

“It’s exciting to see reassuring results from clinical studies of two high-efficacy therapies for multiple sclerosis, especially given their route of administration,” commented Julie Fiol, LMSW, BSN, RN, MSCN, associate vice president of Clinical Innovation and Strategy for the U.S. National MS Society.

“Subcutaneous injections allow people with multiple sclerosis more flexibility when selecting a therapy that matches their lifestyle and preferences,” she said in an interview.

“Adherence to therapy is critical in multiple sclerosis, and additional options for route of administration and site of care enhance the likelihood that someone with multiple sclerosis will find a medication that effectively manages their disease and fits into their lifestyle,” Dr. Fiol explained.

“Subcutaneous injections also have the potential to be more affordable as they could be administered at home or over a shorter duration than an infused medication,” she noted.

In terms of these two particular studies, she added, “it’s reassuring to see that the safety and efficacy of subcutaneous ocrelizumab was similar to intravenous. It was also reassuring to see those who switched from ocrelizumab and rituximab to ofatumumab remained clinically stable.”

OCARINA II was supported by F. Hoffmann-La Roche. OLIKOS was supported by Novartis. Dr. Newsome declares relationships with Biogen, Genentech, Bristol-Myers Squibb, EMD Serono, Greenwich Biosciences, Horizon Therapeutics, Novartis, Roche, and TG Therapeutics and institutional relationships with Biogen, Lundbeck, Roche, Genentech, National MS Society, The Stiff Person Syndrome Research Foundation, Department of Defense, and the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute. Dr. Hua declares relationships with Alexion, Biogen, Bristol-Meyers Squibb, EMD Serono, Genentech, Genzyme, Greenwich Biosciences, Horizon Therapeutics, and Novartis. Other authors also declare relationships.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

MILAN – A specially adapted frame to support individuals with walking and balance disabilities could help people with multiple sclerosis engage in moderate to vigorous physical activity and improve their physical function, a pilot study suggests.

“Frame running” uses a three-wheeled frame with a saddle and body supports but no pedals to allow individuals with disabilities and balance impairments to walk and run under their own power.

Eight individuals with multiple sclerosis and moderate to severe walking impairments took part in a 12-week frame running intervention, which improved both objective physical performance and patient-reported outcomes measures.

“Frame running presents a feasible and enjoyable exercise option for people with multiple sclerosis,” lead author Gary McEwan, PhD, research fellow at the Centre for Health, Activity and Rehabilitation Research at Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh, and colleagues conclude.

It may, they add, “have potential to improve measures of physical function and the ability to perform mobility-related daily activities.”

The findings were presented at the 9th Joint ECTRIMS-ACTRIMS Meeting.
 

Dearth of exercise opportunities

The authors note regular physical activity and exercise are “amongst the most important adjunct therapies for managing the symptoms of multiple sclerosis,” and yet people with the disease are significantly less physically active than the general population.

This is particularly the case for individuals at the upper end of the disability spectrum, they continue, and may reflect the “relative dearth of exercise opportunities that are suitable for those with more severe mobility impairments.”

In recent years, frame running has emerged as a form of exercise that allows individuals with walking difficulties to engage in moderate to vigorous physical activity in a safe manner, but its feasibility in multiple sclerosis has not been investigated.

The researchers recruited people with multiple sclerosis who had moderate to severe walking impairments to take part in a 12-week frame running intervention, comprising a 1-hour session every week.

The 6-minute frame running test (6MFRT) and an adapted shuttle frame running test (SFRT) were used to assess physical function at baseline and after the intervention. Recruitment, retention, and attendance rates were recorded.

The participants also completed a series of patient-reported outcome measures, alongside the Canadian Occupational Performance Measure, to calculate self-perceived abilities in activities of daily living, and semistructured interviews to capture their experiences of the intervention.
 

The camaraderie of physical activity

With six females and two males enrolled in the study, the team reported that the recruitment rate was 47.1%, the retention rate was 75%, and attendance was 86.7%. No adverse events were reported, they note.

The results indicate there were improvements in performance on the physical measures, with small effect sizes on both the 6MFRT (d = 0.37) and the SFRT (d = 0.30).

There were also improvements on the Multiple Sclerosis Walking Scale (d = 0.27), the Fatigue Scale for Motor and Cognitive Functions (d = 0.20), and the Exercise Self-Efficacy Scale (d = 0.46), again with small effect sizes.

A medium effect size was seen for improvements on the Godin Leisure Time Exercise Questionnaire (d = 0.73), and 80% of the participants reported “changes in performance and in satisfaction with their activities of daily living,” the team says.

The qualitative data also suggested the patients found frame running to be “safe and enjoyable,” with key highlights being the “social aspect and camaraderie developed amongst participants.”
 

Mix of physical interventions

Approached for comment, Robert Motl, MD, professor of kinesiology and nutrition, College of Applied Health Sciences, University of Illinois at Chicago, said it “makes a lot of sense” that frame running can improve walking-related outcomes.

He told this news organization that, “for people who have balance-related problems, using their legs in that rhythmical way could really have some great benefits for walking.”

However, Dr. Motl said he is a “little more skeptical about the benefits for balance, because to improve balance you have to be doing something that challenges upright posture.”

With the frame, “I don’t think you’re having to regulate upright posture while you’re doing that intervention, because you have stability with three points and the ground,” he said. “So, I wonder a little bit about that as an outcome.”

Dr. Motl nevertheless underlined that walking can certainly improve physical activity, “and all the other things like vascular function, cardiovascular fitness,” and so on.

Consequently, frame running “could be part of the mix of things for people who are having a disability, particularly individuals who have some balance dysfunction and [for whom] ambulating might put them at risk of falling.”

The study was supported by a research grant from the Multiple Sclerosis Society UK. The study authors and Dr. Modl report no relevant financial relationships.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

MILAN – A specially adapted frame to support individuals with walking and balance disabilities could help people with multiple sclerosis engage in moderate to vigorous physical activity and improve their physical function, a pilot study suggests.

“Frame running” uses a three-wheeled frame with a saddle and body supports but no pedals to allow individuals with disabilities and balance impairments to walk and run under their own power.

Eight individuals with multiple sclerosis and moderate to severe walking impairments took part in a 12-week frame running intervention, which improved both objective physical performance and patient-reported outcomes measures.

“Frame running presents a feasible and enjoyable exercise option for people with multiple sclerosis,” lead author Gary McEwan, PhD, research fellow at the Centre for Health, Activity and Rehabilitation Research at Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh, and colleagues conclude.

It may, they add, “have potential to improve measures of physical function and the ability to perform mobility-related daily activities.”

The findings were presented at the 9th Joint ECTRIMS-ACTRIMS Meeting.
 

Dearth of exercise opportunities

The authors note regular physical activity and exercise are “amongst the most important adjunct therapies for managing the symptoms of multiple sclerosis,” and yet people with the disease are significantly less physically active than the general population.

This is particularly the case for individuals at the upper end of the disability spectrum, they continue, and may reflect the “relative dearth of exercise opportunities that are suitable for those with more severe mobility impairments.”

In recent years, frame running has emerged as a form of exercise that allows individuals with walking difficulties to engage in moderate to vigorous physical activity in a safe manner, but its feasibility in multiple sclerosis has not been investigated.

The researchers recruited people with multiple sclerosis who had moderate to severe walking impairments to take part in a 12-week frame running intervention, comprising a 1-hour session every week.

The 6-minute frame running test (6MFRT) and an adapted shuttle frame running test (SFRT) were used to assess physical function at baseline and after the intervention. Recruitment, retention, and attendance rates were recorded.

The participants also completed a series of patient-reported outcome measures, alongside the Canadian Occupational Performance Measure, to calculate self-perceived abilities in activities of daily living, and semistructured interviews to capture their experiences of the intervention.
 

The camaraderie of physical activity

With six females and two males enrolled in the study, the team reported that the recruitment rate was 47.1%, the retention rate was 75%, and attendance was 86.7%. No adverse events were reported, they note.

The results indicate there were improvements in performance on the physical measures, with small effect sizes on both the 6MFRT (d = 0.37) and the SFRT (d = 0.30).

There were also improvements on the Multiple Sclerosis Walking Scale (d = 0.27), the Fatigue Scale for Motor and Cognitive Functions (d = 0.20), and the Exercise Self-Efficacy Scale (d = 0.46), again with small effect sizes.

A medium effect size was seen for improvements on the Godin Leisure Time Exercise Questionnaire (d = 0.73), and 80% of the participants reported “changes in performance and in satisfaction with their activities of daily living,” the team says.

The qualitative data also suggested the patients found frame running to be “safe and enjoyable,” with key highlights being the “social aspect and camaraderie developed amongst participants.”
 

Mix of physical interventions

Approached for comment, Robert Motl, MD, professor of kinesiology and nutrition, College of Applied Health Sciences, University of Illinois at Chicago, said it “makes a lot of sense” that frame running can improve walking-related outcomes.

He told this news organization that, “for people who have balance-related problems, using their legs in that rhythmical way could really have some great benefits for walking.”

However, Dr. Motl said he is a “little more skeptical about the benefits for balance, because to improve balance you have to be doing something that challenges upright posture.”

With the frame, “I don’t think you’re having to regulate upright posture while you’re doing that intervention, because you have stability with three points and the ground,” he said. “So, I wonder a little bit about that as an outcome.”

Dr. Motl nevertheless underlined that walking can certainly improve physical activity, “and all the other things like vascular function, cardiovascular fitness,” and so on.

Consequently, frame running “could be part of the mix of things for people who are having a disability, particularly individuals who have some balance dysfunction and [for whom] ambulating might put them at risk of falling.”

The study was supported by a research grant from the Multiple Sclerosis Society UK. The study authors and Dr. Modl report no relevant financial relationships.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

MILAN – A specially adapted frame to support individuals with walking and balance disabilities could help people with multiple sclerosis engage in moderate to vigorous physical activity and improve their physical function, a pilot study suggests.

“Frame running” uses a three-wheeled frame with a saddle and body supports but no pedals to allow individuals with disabilities and balance impairments to walk and run under their own power.

Eight individuals with multiple sclerosis and moderate to severe walking impairments took part in a 12-week frame running intervention, which improved both objective physical performance and patient-reported outcomes measures.

“Frame running presents a feasible and enjoyable exercise option for people with multiple sclerosis,” lead author Gary McEwan, PhD, research fellow at the Centre for Health, Activity and Rehabilitation Research at Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh, and colleagues conclude.

It may, they add, “have potential to improve measures of physical function and the ability to perform mobility-related daily activities.”

The findings were presented at the 9th Joint ECTRIMS-ACTRIMS Meeting.
 

Dearth of exercise opportunities

The authors note regular physical activity and exercise are “amongst the most important adjunct therapies for managing the symptoms of multiple sclerosis,” and yet people with the disease are significantly less physically active than the general population.

This is particularly the case for individuals at the upper end of the disability spectrum, they continue, and may reflect the “relative dearth of exercise opportunities that are suitable for those with more severe mobility impairments.”

In recent years, frame running has emerged as a form of exercise that allows individuals with walking difficulties to engage in moderate to vigorous physical activity in a safe manner, but its feasibility in multiple sclerosis has not been investigated.

The researchers recruited people with multiple sclerosis who had moderate to severe walking impairments to take part in a 12-week frame running intervention, comprising a 1-hour session every week.

The 6-minute frame running test (6MFRT) and an adapted shuttle frame running test (SFRT) were used to assess physical function at baseline and after the intervention. Recruitment, retention, and attendance rates were recorded.

The participants also completed a series of patient-reported outcome measures, alongside the Canadian Occupational Performance Measure, to calculate self-perceived abilities in activities of daily living, and semistructured interviews to capture their experiences of the intervention.
 

The camaraderie of physical activity

With six females and two males enrolled in the study, the team reported that the recruitment rate was 47.1%, the retention rate was 75%, and attendance was 86.7%. No adverse events were reported, they note.

The results indicate there were improvements in performance on the physical measures, with small effect sizes on both the 6MFRT (d = 0.37) and the SFRT (d = 0.30).

There were also improvements on the Multiple Sclerosis Walking Scale (d = 0.27), the Fatigue Scale for Motor and Cognitive Functions (d = 0.20), and the Exercise Self-Efficacy Scale (d = 0.46), again with small effect sizes.

A medium effect size was seen for improvements on the Godin Leisure Time Exercise Questionnaire (d = 0.73), and 80% of the participants reported “changes in performance and in satisfaction with their activities of daily living,” the team says.

The qualitative data also suggested the patients found frame running to be “safe and enjoyable,” with key highlights being the “social aspect and camaraderie developed amongst participants.”
 

Mix of physical interventions

Approached for comment, Robert Motl, MD, professor of kinesiology and nutrition, College of Applied Health Sciences, University of Illinois at Chicago, said it “makes a lot of sense” that frame running can improve walking-related outcomes.

He told this news organization that, “for people who have balance-related problems, using their legs in that rhythmical way could really have some great benefits for walking.”

However, Dr. Motl said he is a “little more skeptical about the benefits for balance, because to improve balance you have to be doing something that challenges upright posture.”

With the frame, “I don’t think you’re having to regulate upright posture while you’re doing that intervention, because you have stability with three points and the ground,” he said. “So, I wonder a little bit about that as an outcome.”

Dr. Motl nevertheless underlined that walking can certainly improve physical activity, “and all the other things like vascular function, cardiovascular fitness,” and so on.

Consequently, frame running “could be part of the mix of things for people who are having a disability, particularly individuals who have some balance dysfunction and [for whom] ambulating might put them at risk of falling.”

The study was supported by a research grant from the Multiple Sclerosis Society UK. The study authors and Dr. Modl report no relevant financial relationships.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

MILAN – The news about multiple sclerosis (MS) and child-bearing in women is largely good, a researcher told colleagues at the 9th Joint ECTRIMS-ACTRIMS Meeting. Evidence suggests that MS doesn’t disrupt fertility, pregnancy, birth, or lactation. However, there are still uncertainties about the timing of medical treatment for MS before, during, and after pregnancy.

Epidemiologist Emmanuelle Leray, PhD, of French School of Public Health in Rennes, urged neurologists to not be too eager to take women off medication – or too slow to put them back on it. “MS should not be undertreated due to a desire for pregnancy, as there are several options that are possible and compatible with pregnancy,” she said. As for after pregnancy, when women face a well-known high risk of MS rebound, “we can reasonably assume that women with active MS need to be advised to restart rapid, highly effective DMT [disease-modifying therapy] soon after delivery,” she said.

Women are more likely than men to develop MS, and they often do so during child-bearing years. Pregnancy among women with MS has become more common over the years: A 2018 Neurology study examined U.S. data from 2006 to 2014 and reported that the annual adjusted proportion of women with MS and pregnancy increased from 7.91% to 9.47%.

While it appears that women with MS get pregnant less often than the age-matched general population, that “doesn’t mean that fertility is impaired. It probably rather reflects the impact of an early diagnosis of MS on associated consequences regarding psychological and physical impact,” Dr. Leray said. “Regarding pregnancy outcomes, there is no evidence of an increased risk of prematurity or adverse neonatal outcomes. That’s why we can assume that multiple sclerosis will not impact the course of pregnancy and does not make a pregnancy at-risk.”

But some treatments may be harmful to the fetus, she said. Teriflunomide must be stopped before pregnancy. Natalizumab and fingolimod-siponimod raise the risk of rebound, and alternate drugs should be considered before pregnancy. However, anti–CD 20 drugs and cladribine “may be a relevant option because their use before pregnancy may provide effective disease control without exposing the fetus or the baby.”

Should women be on MS drugs at all during pregnancy, a period when MS typically wanes? “The recommendation is to discontinue disease-modifying therapy before conception,” Dr. Leray said. “However, we know now that some DMTs can be used safely during pregnancy, especially injectables.” Specifically, beta interferon and glatiramer acetate can be used safely during pregnancy, she said.

The biggest hurdle comes after pregnancy, when women face a high risk of MS rebound. The relapse rate has fallen in recent years from about 30% to 11%-14%, Dr. Leray said, possibly because of the rise of more effective treatment. But the risk, she said, is still significant.

What can clinicians do to avert relapse? According to Dr. Leray, research has failed to support several possible alternatives to DMTs – high-dose corticosteroids, intravenous immunoglobulin, and hormonal treatment. “There was no evidence of efficacy of any of these strategies, both in randomized clinical trials and in real-world studies.”

For now, it seems best to restart DMTs as soon as possible after delivery, Dr. Leray said. She urged colleagues to keep in mind that it takes about 3 months for DMTs to reach full efficacy – and research suggests the highest risk of relapse is during the first 3 months after delivery. “That has to be taken into account in the therapeutic strategy,” she said.

Dr. Leray reports consulting/lecture/travel grants from Biogen, Genzyme, MedDay, Merck, Novartis, and Roche.

MILAN – The news about multiple sclerosis (MS) and child-bearing in women is largely good, a researcher told colleagues at the 9th Joint ECTRIMS-ACTRIMS Meeting. Evidence suggests that MS doesn’t disrupt fertility, pregnancy, birth, or lactation. However, there are still uncertainties about the timing of medical treatment for MS before, during, and after pregnancy.

Epidemiologist Emmanuelle Leray, PhD, of French School of Public Health in Rennes, urged neurologists to not be too eager to take women off medication – or too slow to put them back on it. “MS should not be undertreated due to a desire for pregnancy, as there are several options that are possible and compatible with pregnancy,” she said. As for after pregnancy, when women face a well-known high risk of MS rebound, “we can reasonably assume that women with active MS need to be advised to restart rapid, highly effective DMT [disease-modifying therapy] soon after delivery,” she said.

Women are more likely than men to develop MS, and they often do so during child-bearing years. Pregnancy among women with MS has become more common over the years: A 2018 Neurology study examined U.S. data from 2006 to 2014 and reported that the annual adjusted proportion of women with MS and pregnancy increased from 7.91% to 9.47%.

While it appears that women with MS get pregnant less often than the age-matched general population, that “doesn’t mean that fertility is impaired. It probably rather reflects the impact of an early diagnosis of MS on associated consequences regarding psychological and physical impact,” Dr. Leray said. “Regarding pregnancy outcomes, there is no evidence of an increased risk of prematurity or adverse neonatal outcomes. That’s why we can assume that multiple sclerosis will not impact the course of pregnancy and does not make a pregnancy at-risk.”

But some treatments may be harmful to the fetus, she said. Teriflunomide must be stopped before pregnancy. Natalizumab and fingolimod-siponimod raise the risk of rebound, and alternate drugs should be considered before pregnancy. However, anti–CD 20 drugs and cladribine “may be a relevant option because their use before pregnancy may provide effective disease control without exposing the fetus or the baby.”

Should women be on MS drugs at all during pregnancy, a period when MS typically wanes? “The recommendation is to discontinue disease-modifying therapy before conception,” Dr. Leray said. “However, we know now that some DMTs can be used safely during pregnancy, especially injectables.” Specifically, beta interferon and glatiramer acetate can be used safely during pregnancy, she said.

The biggest hurdle comes after pregnancy, when women face a high risk of MS rebound. The relapse rate has fallen in recent years from about 30% to 11%-14%, Dr. Leray said, possibly because of the rise of more effective treatment. But the risk, she said, is still significant.

What can clinicians do to avert relapse? According to Dr. Leray, research has failed to support several possible alternatives to DMTs – high-dose corticosteroids, intravenous immunoglobulin, and hormonal treatment. “There was no evidence of efficacy of any of these strategies, both in randomized clinical trials and in real-world studies.”

For now, it seems best to restart DMTs as soon as possible after delivery, Dr. Leray said. She urged colleagues to keep in mind that it takes about 3 months for DMTs to reach full efficacy – and research suggests the highest risk of relapse is during the first 3 months after delivery. “That has to be taken into account in the therapeutic strategy,” she said.

Dr. Leray reports consulting/lecture/travel grants from Biogen, Genzyme, MedDay, Merck, Novartis, and Roche.

MILAN – The news about multiple sclerosis (MS) and child-bearing in women is largely good, a researcher told colleagues at the 9th Joint ECTRIMS-ACTRIMS Meeting. Evidence suggests that MS doesn’t disrupt fertility, pregnancy, birth, or lactation. However, there are still uncertainties about the timing of medical treatment for MS before, during, and after pregnancy.

Epidemiologist Emmanuelle Leray, PhD, of French School of Public Health in Rennes, urged neurologists to not be too eager to take women off medication – or too slow to put them back on it. “MS should not be undertreated due to a desire for pregnancy, as there are several options that are possible and compatible with pregnancy,” she said. As for after pregnancy, when women face a well-known high risk of MS rebound, “we can reasonably assume that women with active MS need to be advised to restart rapid, highly effective DMT [disease-modifying therapy] soon after delivery,” she said.

Women are more likely than men to develop MS, and they often do so during child-bearing years. Pregnancy among women with MS has become more common over the years: A 2018 Neurology study examined U.S. data from 2006 to 2014 and reported that the annual adjusted proportion of women with MS and pregnancy increased from 7.91% to 9.47%.

While it appears that women with MS get pregnant less often than the age-matched general population, that “doesn’t mean that fertility is impaired. It probably rather reflects the impact of an early diagnosis of MS on associated consequences regarding psychological and physical impact,” Dr. Leray said. “Regarding pregnancy outcomes, there is no evidence of an increased risk of prematurity or adverse neonatal outcomes. That’s why we can assume that multiple sclerosis will not impact the course of pregnancy and does not make a pregnancy at-risk.”

But some treatments may be harmful to the fetus, she said. Teriflunomide must be stopped before pregnancy. Natalizumab and fingolimod-siponimod raise the risk of rebound, and alternate drugs should be considered before pregnancy. However, anti–CD 20 drugs and cladribine “may be a relevant option because their use before pregnancy may provide effective disease control without exposing the fetus or the baby.”

Should women be on MS drugs at all during pregnancy, a period when MS typically wanes? “The recommendation is to discontinue disease-modifying therapy before conception,” Dr. Leray said. “However, we know now that some DMTs can be used safely during pregnancy, especially injectables.” Specifically, beta interferon and glatiramer acetate can be used safely during pregnancy, she said.

The biggest hurdle comes after pregnancy, when women face a high risk of MS rebound. The relapse rate has fallen in recent years from about 30% to 11%-14%, Dr. Leray said, possibly because of the rise of more effective treatment. But the risk, she said, is still significant.

What can clinicians do to avert relapse? According to Dr. Leray, research has failed to support several possible alternatives to DMTs – high-dose corticosteroids, intravenous immunoglobulin, and hormonal treatment. “There was no evidence of efficacy of any of these strategies, both in randomized clinical trials and in real-world studies.”

For now, it seems best to restart DMTs as soon as possible after delivery, Dr. Leray said. She urged colleagues to keep in mind that it takes about 3 months for DMTs to reach full efficacy – and research suggests the highest risk of relapse is during the first 3 months after delivery. “That has to be taken into account in the therapeutic strategy,” she said.

Dr. Leray reports consulting/lecture/travel grants from Biogen, Genzyme, MedDay, Merck, Novartis, and Roche.

MILAN – A tool kit combining a wearable device with automated algorithms allows for the passive monitoring of disease parameters in people with multiple sclerosis (MS) and may even be able to predict the course of the disease, suggests a pilot study.

Twenty patients were enrolled, only half of whom correctly completed all of the assessments and wore the included smartwatch regularly. Importantly, the data reported back for analysis was in line with expectations, and the patient feedback was positive.

The tool kit “seems feasible and usable to remotely monitor multiple domains of health status in people with multiple sclerosis,” conclude Ludovico Pedullà, PhD, Italian Multiple Sclerosis Foundation, Genoa, and colleagues.

Further analysis of the dataset, including the artificial intelligence and machine-learning algorithms, may allow the prediction of “relevant changes throughout the course of multiple sclerosis” and anticipate the need for therapeutic interventions.

The findings were presented at the 9th Joint ECTRIMS-ACTRIMS meeting.
 

Leveraging big data to improve outcomes

The authors note that the primary aim of the pan-European ALAMEDA project is to leverage “big data” through artificial intelligence and machine learning to provide “clinically actionable information” on patients with brain disorders that “complements medical recommendations” and thus improves treatment.

For the current pilot study, the researchers developed an integrated platform to collect patient-centered data from wearables and mobile devices using digital patient-reported outcomes (ePROs), with the aim of testing the resulting tool kit’s feasibility and usability in people with MS.

Dr. Pedullà said that they wanted to have “passive monitoring” of patients over the course of their daily lives and therefore searched for the best devices and the most relevant patient reported outcomes as well as used “innovative algorithms” to analyze the data to try to predict the disease course.

To reduce dropouts and increase adherence to the tool kit, they described the project to patients with MS and asked for their feedback to determine whether what they had designed was feasible from the patient perspective, Dr. Pedullà said.

This led to some changes in the way data were collected, and the team developed a social network channel so patients would be able to ask for support and stay engaged in the study.
 

Feasible with high levels of confidence

Twenty people with relapsing-remitting MS were enrolled, of whom 14 were women. The mean age was 37.8 years, and the mean disease duration was 9.1 years. The mean Expanded Disability Status Scale was 2.2.

The participants were asked to use the tool kit for 1 year, with half reaching the 6-month milestone. Participants correctly completed 53% of the scheduled ePROs and regularly wore the smartwatch without reporting discomfort.

The team reports that the data from the tool kit “are in line with those reported in the literature.”

It showed that participants took an average of 8,415 steps per day and completed 9.8 minutes of vigorous activity and 14.5 minutes of moderate activity daily. Daily sedentary minutes were 705.1.

Patients had a mean Perceived Deficit Questionnaire score of 25.2, a Beck Anxiety Inventory score of 17.3, a score on the 12-Item Multiple Sclerosis Walking Scale of 37.2, and an arm function on the Multiple Sclerosis Questionnaire of 47.4.

The mean Modified Fatigue Impact Scale score was 18.5, and the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index score was 25.2. The System Usability Scale revealed “high levels of confidence” with the tool kit, the team says, as well as “very high” intention of using it in the future.

Dr. Pedullà said that the researchers now want to evaluate the feasibility of the tool kit further by analyzing the adherence and usability data and targeting it to the patients who are most likely to use it.

They also want to determine not only whether the use of wearables in this way can predict relapse in multiple sclerosis but also disease progression, particularly as the current definitions are evolving.
 

Reducing daily step count

Approached for comment, Riley M. Bove, MD, MSc, Assistant Professor, UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences, San Francisco, said that the study is “very interesting and in line with what has been previously published.”

She pointed to a recent study that she co-authored, in which remote monitoring via a continuous step counter revealed that a decreasing average daily step count was associated with the worsening of standard ambulatory measures.

“There are nice benefits of an integrated platform” such as what was used in the current study, Dr. Bove noted, adding that it is “even better if it can also send the data to clinicians.”

The ALAMEDA project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program. No relevant financial relationships declared.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

MILAN – A tool kit combining a wearable device with automated algorithms allows for the passive monitoring of disease parameters in people with multiple sclerosis (MS) and may even be able to predict the course of the disease, suggests a pilot study.

Twenty patients were enrolled, only half of whom correctly completed all of the assessments and wore the included smartwatch regularly. Importantly, the data reported back for analysis was in line with expectations, and the patient feedback was positive.

The tool kit “seems feasible and usable to remotely monitor multiple domains of health status in people with multiple sclerosis,” conclude Ludovico Pedullà, PhD, Italian Multiple Sclerosis Foundation, Genoa, and colleagues.

Further analysis of the dataset, including the artificial intelligence and machine-learning algorithms, may allow the prediction of “relevant changes throughout the course of multiple sclerosis” and anticipate the need for therapeutic interventions.

The findings were presented at the 9th Joint ECTRIMS-ACTRIMS meeting.
 

Leveraging big data to improve outcomes

The authors note that the primary aim of the pan-European ALAMEDA project is to leverage “big data” through artificial intelligence and machine learning to provide “clinically actionable information” on patients with brain disorders that “complements medical recommendations” and thus improves treatment.

For the current pilot study, the researchers developed an integrated platform to collect patient-centered data from wearables and mobile devices using digital patient-reported outcomes (ePROs), with the aim of testing the resulting tool kit’s feasibility and usability in people with MS.

Dr. Pedullà said that they wanted to have “passive monitoring” of patients over the course of their daily lives and therefore searched for the best devices and the most relevant patient reported outcomes as well as used “innovative algorithms” to analyze the data to try to predict the disease course.

To reduce dropouts and increase adherence to the tool kit, they described the project to patients with MS and asked for their feedback to determine whether what they had designed was feasible from the patient perspective, Dr. Pedullà said.

This led to some changes in the way data were collected, and the team developed a social network channel so patients would be able to ask for support and stay engaged in the study.
 

Feasible with high levels of confidence

Twenty people with relapsing-remitting MS were enrolled, of whom 14 were women. The mean age was 37.8 years, and the mean disease duration was 9.1 years. The mean Expanded Disability Status Scale was 2.2.

The participants were asked to use the tool kit for 1 year, with half reaching the 6-month milestone. Participants correctly completed 53% of the scheduled ePROs and regularly wore the smartwatch without reporting discomfort.

The team reports that the data from the tool kit “are in line with those reported in the literature.”

It showed that participants took an average of 8,415 steps per day and completed 9.8 minutes of vigorous activity and 14.5 minutes of moderate activity daily. Daily sedentary minutes were 705.1.

Patients had a mean Perceived Deficit Questionnaire score of 25.2, a Beck Anxiety Inventory score of 17.3, a score on the 12-Item Multiple Sclerosis Walking Scale of 37.2, and an arm function on the Multiple Sclerosis Questionnaire of 47.4.

The mean Modified Fatigue Impact Scale score was 18.5, and the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index score was 25.2. The System Usability Scale revealed “high levels of confidence” with the tool kit, the team says, as well as “very high” intention of using it in the future.

Dr. Pedullà said that the researchers now want to evaluate the feasibility of the tool kit further by analyzing the adherence and usability data and targeting it to the patients who are most likely to use it.

They also want to determine not only whether the use of wearables in this way can predict relapse in multiple sclerosis but also disease progression, particularly as the current definitions are evolving.
 

Reducing daily step count

Approached for comment, Riley M. Bove, MD, MSc, Assistant Professor, UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences, San Francisco, said that the study is “very interesting and in line with what has been previously published.”

She pointed to a recent study that she co-authored, in which remote monitoring via a continuous step counter revealed that a decreasing average daily step count was associated with the worsening of standard ambulatory measures.

“There are nice benefits of an integrated platform” such as what was used in the current study, Dr. Bove noted, adding that it is “even better if it can also send the data to clinicians.”

The ALAMEDA project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program. No relevant financial relationships declared.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

MILAN – A tool kit combining a wearable device with automated algorithms allows for the passive monitoring of disease parameters in people with multiple sclerosis (MS) and may even be able to predict the course of the disease, suggests a pilot study.

Twenty patients were enrolled, only half of whom correctly completed all of the assessments and wore the included smartwatch regularly. Importantly, the data reported back for analysis was in line with expectations, and the patient feedback was positive.

The tool kit “seems feasible and usable to remotely monitor multiple domains of health status in people with multiple sclerosis,” conclude Ludovico Pedullà, PhD, Italian Multiple Sclerosis Foundation, Genoa, and colleagues.

Further analysis of the dataset, including the artificial intelligence and machine-learning algorithms, may allow the prediction of “relevant changes throughout the course of multiple sclerosis” and anticipate the need for therapeutic interventions.

The findings were presented at the 9th Joint ECTRIMS-ACTRIMS meeting.
 

Leveraging big data to improve outcomes

The authors note that the primary aim of the pan-European ALAMEDA project is to leverage “big data” through artificial intelligence and machine learning to provide “clinically actionable information” on patients with brain disorders that “complements medical recommendations” and thus improves treatment.

For the current pilot study, the researchers developed an integrated platform to collect patient-centered data from wearables and mobile devices using digital patient-reported outcomes (ePROs), with the aim of testing the resulting tool kit’s feasibility and usability in people with MS.

Dr. Pedullà said that they wanted to have “passive monitoring” of patients over the course of their daily lives and therefore searched for the best devices and the most relevant patient reported outcomes as well as used “innovative algorithms” to analyze the data to try to predict the disease course.

To reduce dropouts and increase adherence to the tool kit, they described the project to patients with MS and asked for their feedback to determine whether what they had designed was feasible from the patient perspective, Dr. Pedullà said.

This led to some changes in the way data were collected, and the team developed a social network channel so patients would be able to ask for support and stay engaged in the study.
 

Feasible with high levels of confidence

Twenty people with relapsing-remitting MS were enrolled, of whom 14 were women. The mean age was 37.8 years, and the mean disease duration was 9.1 years. The mean Expanded Disability Status Scale was 2.2.

The participants were asked to use the tool kit for 1 year, with half reaching the 6-month milestone. Participants correctly completed 53% of the scheduled ePROs and regularly wore the smartwatch without reporting discomfort.

The team reports that the data from the tool kit “are in line with those reported in the literature.”

It showed that participants took an average of 8,415 steps per day and completed 9.8 minutes of vigorous activity and 14.5 minutes of moderate activity daily. Daily sedentary minutes were 705.1.

Patients had a mean Perceived Deficit Questionnaire score of 25.2, a Beck Anxiety Inventory score of 17.3, a score on the 12-Item Multiple Sclerosis Walking Scale of 37.2, and an arm function on the Multiple Sclerosis Questionnaire of 47.4.

The mean Modified Fatigue Impact Scale score was 18.5, and the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index score was 25.2. The System Usability Scale revealed “high levels of confidence” with the tool kit, the team says, as well as “very high” intention of using it in the future.

Dr. Pedullà said that the researchers now want to evaluate the feasibility of the tool kit further by analyzing the adherence and usability data and targeting it to the patients who are most likely to use it.

They also want to determine not only whether the use of wearables in this way can predict relapse in multiple sclerosis but also disease progression, particularly as the current definitions are evolving.
 

Reducing daily step count

Approached for comment, Riley M. Bove, MD, MSc, Assistant Professor, UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences, San Francisco, said that the study is “very interesting and in line with what has been previously published.”

She pointed to a recent study that she co-authored, in which remote monitoring via a continuous step counter revealed that a decreasing average daily step count was associated with the worsening of standard ambulatory measures.

“There are nice benefits of an integrated platform” such as what was used in the current study, Dr. Bove noted, adding that it is “even better if it can also send the data to clinicians.”

The ALAMEDA project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program. No relevant financial relationships declared.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

MILAN – An analysis of medical records of patients diagnosed with neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder (NMO) found that many may be misdiagnosed: 47% had diagnoses listed for both NMO and multiple sclerosis (MS), a similar disease that requires different treatment, according to a poster presented at the 9th Joint ECTRIMS-ACTRIMS meeting.

“There is a lack of education in differentiating between MS and NMO even in the medical community, which may result in a high misdiagnosis rate,” said study lead author Ka-Ho Wong, MBA, of the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, in an interview.

“NMO was recognized in the late 1800s and was historically thought to be a variant of MS until 1999,” said Michael Levy, MD, PhD, of Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, both in Boston, in an interview.

“They are both relapsing inflammatory disorders of the central nervous system with similarities in symptoms of weakness, numbness, mobility problem, vision defects, pain and fatigue,” said Dr. Levy, who did not take part in the new study. “A blood test for NMO was developed in 2004 and improved over time to the point that it can now reliably distinguish NMO from MS.”

As for therapy, “recent research has confirmed the two conditions are immunologically different and respond to different treatment,” Dr. Levy said. “The treatments developed for MS, especially from the 1990s, are harmful in NMO so it is important to make the diagnosis correctly.”

He added that “we do not recognize overlap between NMO or MS – it’s one or the other.”

Exploring the reasons for misdiagnosis

Mr. Wong, the present study’s lead author, said he and a research team launched the new study to better understand who gets misdiagnosed. “We know that almost 50% of the individuals get misdiagnosed at some point. However, what we don’t know yet is if the influencing factors are social determinants of health or if there are other causes.”

For the study, Mr. Wong and colleagues analyzed data from TriNetX, a health research network with access to medical records from 61 U.S. health care organizations. providing access to electronic medical records that includes sixty-one health care organizations (HCOs) in the United States.

ICD-10 coding statistics from 2008 to 2022 identified 7,657 patients with diagnoses for NMO. Of those, 4,040 (53%) only had diagnoses for NMO, and the rest (3,617, 47%) had diagnoses for both NMO and MS.

The researchers focused on 1,265 patients who had been coded for both diagnoses and had at least three clinical visits. They determined that a patient was misdiagnosed when they had three consecutive diagnoses of the same type. “For example, if they had MS but got misdiagnosed as NMO, once they are confirmed as MS they must have three or more consecutive diagnosis of MS to be considered as misdiagnosed,” Mr. Wong said.

Of the 1,265 subjects, the researchers determined that 308 (24%) had NMO but had been misdiagnosed as having MS, 189 (15%) had MS but were misdiagnosed as having NMO, and 768 (61%) were interchangeably diagnosed with the two conditions over time.

Among these three groups, 70.8%, 73.1%, and 78.4% were female, respectively; and 59.4%, 52.9%, and 53.0% were White, respectively. The percentages of Black patients were 17.2%, 24.3%, and 28.9%, respectively. Information about statistical significance was not provided in the poster.

Dr. Levy said he would “expect most NMO patients to initially be diagnosed with MS. It’s unusual to start with a diagnosis of NMO and then figure out it’s MS.”

As for the larger number of people with interchangeable diagnoses, Dr. Levy said that likely “reflects the messiness of billing codes.” For his part, Mr. Wong said there could be multiple causes for the interchangeable diagnoses: lack of disease knowledge, miscoding, lack of Food and Drug Administration–approved treatment for NMO at the time, and potentially other factors.

What does it all mean?

As for the study’s significance, Mr. Wong said a full workup should be performed before diagnosis, “and a neurologist should never prescribe disease-modifying therapies prior to a confirmation of diagnosis.”

Indeed, some disease-modifying therapies for MS are inappropriate for patients with NMO, Dr. Levy said. “The older medications, including beta-interferons, are among the most harmful to NMO patients. But they are not commonly used as first line for MS as they used to be. In contrast, B cell–depleting medications like ocrelizumab may be helpful in NMO.” 

In regards to diagnosis, Dr. Levy noted that the NMO aquaporin-4 (AQP4) antibody test is “extremely specific and reliable.”

“A positive test result in the context of a clinical presentation of central nervous system inflammation allows for the diagnosis of NMO,” he said. “A negative test result is more complicated and may require some expertise to sort out after a careful review of the history, neurological exam, MRI features, central nervous system testing and other blood test results.”

The study was funded by the Sumaira Foundation. The authors did not provide information about relevant disclosures. Dr. Levy reports personal compensation for advisory board activities from Roche, Genentech, Chugai, Horizon, Alexion and Mitsubishi and grant support from Genentech, Horizon, Alexion, Sanofi, and UCB.

MILAN – An analysis of medical records of patients diagnosed with neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder (NMO) found that many may be misdiagnosed: 47% had diagnoses listed for both NMO and multiple sclerosis (MS), a similar disease that requires different treatment, according to a poster presented at the 9th Joint ECTRIMS-ACTRIMS meeting.

“There is a lack of education in differentiating between MS and NMO even in the medical community, which may result in a high misdiagnosis rate,” said study lead author Ka-Ho Wong, MBA, of the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, in an interview.

“NMO was recognized in the late 1800s and was historically thought to be a variant of MS until 1999,” said Michael Levy, MD, PhD, of Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, both in Boston, in an interview.

“They are both relapsing inflammatory disorders of the central nervous system with similarities in symptoms of weakness, numbness, mobility problem, vision defects, pain and fatigue,” said Dr. Levy, who did not take part in the new study. “A blood test for NMO was developed in 2004 and improved over time to the point that it can now reliably distinguish NMO from MS.”

As for therapy, “recent research has confirmed the two conditions are immunologically different and respond to different treatment,” Dr. Levy said. “The treatments developed for MS, especially from the 1990s, are harmful in NMO so it is important to make the diagnosis correctly.”

He added that “we do not recognize overlap between NMO or MS – it’s one or the other.”

Exploring the reasons for misdiagnosis

Mr. Wong, the present study’s lead author, said he and a research team launched the new study to better understand who gets misdiagnosed. “We know that almost 50% of the individuals get misdiagnosed at some point. However, what we don’t know yet is if the influencing factors are social determinants of health or if there are other causes.”

For the study, Mr. Wong and colleagues analyzed data from TriNetX, a health research network with access to medical records from 61 U.S. health care organizations. providing access to electronic medical records that includes sixty-one health care organizations (HCOs) in the United States.

ICD-10 coding statistics from 2008 to 2022 identified 7,657 patients with diagnoses for NMO. Of those, 4,040 (53%) only had diagnoses for NMO, and the rest (3,617, 47%) had diagnoses for both NMO and MS.

The researchers focused on 1,265 patients who had been coded for both diagnoses and had at least three clinical visits. They determined that a patient was misdiagnosed when they had three consecutive diagnoses of the same type. “For example, if they had MS but got misdiagnosed as NMO, once they are confirmed as MS they must have three or more consecutive diagnosis of MS to be considered as misdiagnosed,” Mr. Wong said.

Of the 1,265 subjects, the researchers determined that 308 (24%) had NMO but had been misdiagnosed as having MS, 189 (15%) had MS but were misdiagnosed as having NMO, and 768 (61%) were interchangeably diagnosed with the two conditions over time.

Among these three groups, 70.8%, 73.1%, and 78.4% were female, respectively; and 59.4%, 52.9%, and 53.0% were White, respectively. The percentages of Black patients were 17.2%, 24.3%, and 28.9%, respectively. Information about statistical significance was not provided in the poster.

Dr. Levy said he would “expect most NMO patients to initially be diagnosed with MS. It’s unusual to start with a diagnosis of NMO and then figure out it’s MS.”

As for the larger number of people with interchangeable diagnoses, Dr. Levy said that likely “reflects the messiness of billing codes.” For his part, Mr. Wong said there could be multiple causes for the interchangeable diagnoses: lack of disease knowledge, miscoding, lack of Food and Drug Administration–approved treatment for NMO at the time, and potentially other factors.

What does it all mean?

As for the study’s significance, Mr. Wong said a full workup should be performed before diagnosis, “and a neurologist should never prescribe disease-modifying therapies prior to a confirmation of diagnosis.”

Indeed, some disease-modifying therapies for MS are inappropriate for patients with NMO, Dr. Levy said. “The older medications, including beta-interferons, are among the most harmful to NMO patients. But they are not commonly used as first line for MS as they used to be. In contrast, B cell–depleting medications like ocrelizumab may be helpful in NMO.” 

In regards to diagnosis, Dr. Levy noted that the NMO aquaporin-4 (AQP4) antibody test is “extremely specific and reliable.”

“A positive test result in the context of a clinical presentation of central nervous system inflammation allows for the diagnosis of NMO,” he said. “A negative test result is more complicated and may require some expertise to sort out after a careful review of the history, neurological exam, MRI features, central nervous system testing and other blood test results.”

The study was funded by the Sumaira Foundation. The authors did not provide information about relevant disclosures. Dr. Levy reports personal compensation for advisory board activities from Roche, Genentech, Chugai, Horizon, Alexion and Mitsubishi and grant support from Genentech, Horizon, Alexion, Sanofi, and UCB.

MILAN – An analysis of medical records of patients diagnosed with neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder (NMO) found that many may be misdiagnosed: 47% had diagnoses listed for both NMO and multiple sclerosis (MS), a similar disease that requires different treatment, according to a poster presented at the 9th Joint ECTRIMS-ACTRIMS meeting.

“There is a lack of education in differentiating between MS and NMO even in the medical community, which may result in a high misdiagnosis rate,” said study lead author Ka-Ho Wong, MBA, of the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, in an interview.

“NMO was recognized in the late 1800s and was historically thought to be a variant of MS until 1999,” said Michael Levy, MD, PhD, of Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, both in Boston, in an interview.

“They are both relapsing inflammatory disorders of the central nervous system with similarities in symptoms of weakness, numbness, mobility problem, vision defects, pain and fatigue,” said Dr. Levy, who did not take part in the new study. “A blood test for NMO was developed in 2004 and improved over time to the point that it can now reliably distinguish NMO from MS.”

As for therapy, “recent research has confirmed the two conditions are immunologically different and respond to different treatment,” Dr. Levy said. “The treatments developed for MS, especially from the 1990s, are harmful in NMO so it is important to make the diagnosis correctly.”

He added that “we do not recognize overlap between NMO or MS – it’s one or the other.”

Exploring the reasons for misdiagnosis

Mr. Wong, the present study’s lead author, said he and a research team launched the new study to better understand who gets misdiagnosed. “We know that almost 50% of the individuals get misdiagnosed at some point. However, what we don’t know yet is if the influencing factors are social determinants of health or if there are other causes.”

For the study, Mr. Wong and colleagues analyzed data from TriNetX, a health research network with access to medical records from 61 U.S. health care organizations. providing access to electronic medical records that includes sixty-one health care organizations (HCOs) in the United States.

ICD-10 coding statistics from 2008 to 2022 identified 7,657 patients with diagnoses for NMO. Of those, 4,040 (53%) only had diagnoses for NMO, and the rest (3,617, 47%) had diagnoses for both NMO and MS.

The researchers focused on 1,265 patients who had been coded for both diagnoses and had at least three clinical visits. They determined that a patient was misdiagnosed when they had three consecutive diagnoses of the same type. “For example, if they had MS but got misdiagnosed as NMO, once they are confirmed as MS they must have three or more consecutive diagnosis of MS to be considered as misdiagnosed,” Mr. Wong said.

Of the 1,265 subjects, the researchers determined that 308 (24%) had NMO but had been misdiagnosed as having MS, 189 (15%) had MS but were misdiagnosed as having NMO, and 768 (61%) were interchangeably diagnosed with the two conditions over time.

Among these three groups, 70.8%, 73.1%, and 78.4% were female, respectively; and 59.4%, 52.9%, and 53.0% were White, respectively. The percentages of Black patients were 17.2%, 24.3%, and 28.9%, respectively. Information about statistical significance was not provided in the poster.

Dr. Levy said he would “expect most NMO patients to initially be diagnosed with MS. It’s unusual to start with a diagnosis of NMO and then figure out it’s MS.”

As for the larger number of people with interchangeable diagnoses, Dr. Levy said that likely “reflects the messiness of billing codes.” For his part, Mr. Wong said there could be multiple causes for the interchangeable diagnoses: lack of disease knowledge, miscoding, lack of Food and Drug Administration–approved treatment for NMO at the time, and potentially other factors.

What does it all mean?

As for the study’s significance, Mr. Wong said a full workup should be performed before diagnosis, “and a neurologist should never prescribe disease-modifying therapies prior to a confirmation of diagnosis.”

Indeed, some disease-modifying therapies for MS are inappropriate for patients with NMO, Dr. Levy said. “The older medications, including beta-interferons, are among the most harmful to NMO patients. But they are not commonly used as first line for MS as they used to be. In contrast, B cell–depleting medications like ocrelizumab may be helpful in NMO.” 

In regards to diagnosis, Dr. Levy noted that the NMO aquaporin-4 (AQP4) antibody test is “extremely specific and reliable.”

“A positive test result in the context of a clinical presentation of central nervous system inflammation allows for the diagnosis of NMO,” he said. “A negative test result is more complicated and may require some expertise to sort out after a careful review of the history, neurological exam, MRI features, central nervous system testing and other blood test results.”

The study was funded by the Sumaira Foundation. The authors did not provide information about relevant disclosures. Dr. Levy reports personal compensation for advisory board activities from Roche, Genentech, Chugai, Horizon, Alexion and Mitsubishi and grant support from Genentech, Horizon, Alexion, Sanofi, and UCB.