Long COVID in People With Multiple Sclerosis and Related Disorders: A Multicenter Cross-Sectional Study.

Background: Managing long COVID in people with multiple sclerosis and related disorders (pwMSRD) is complex due to overlapping symptoms. To address evidence gaps, we evaluated long COVID susceptibility in pwMSRD versus controls and its associations with multi-domain function and disability.

Methods: In this multicenter cross-sectional study, participants completed a survey covering 71 post-infection symptoms, distinguishing new-onset from worsening symptoms.

Long COVID in people with multiple sclerosis and related disorders: a multicenter cross-sectional study.

Background: Managing long COVID in people with multiple sclerosis and related disorders (pwMSRD) is complex due to overlapping symptoms. To address evidence gaps, we evaluated long COVID susceptibility in pwMSRD versus controls and its associations with multi-domain function and disability.

Methods: In this multicenter cross-sectional study, participants completed a survey covering 71 post-infection symptoms, distinguishing new-onset from worsening symptoms.

Resilience Among Caregivers of People With Multiple Sclerosis: Exploring the Influence of Personality Traits, Coping, and Caregiver Burden.

Background: Resilience has been recognized as a vital protective factor in coping with stress and adversity. Multiple sclerosis (MS) caregiving is a complex and demanding role, often characterized by challenges.

Methods: Caregivers of people with MS were recruited through health care professionals affiliated with the Jacobs MS Center for Treatment and Research in Buffalo, New York.

Post-Partum Clinical and Patient-Reported Outcome Changes in Mothers with Multiple Sclerosis: Findings from the NAPPREMS Study.

: Pregnancy in mothers with multiple sclerosis (MS) commonly results in significant changes in disease activity and changes in clinical care, including the discontinuation of disease modifying therapy (DMT). This study aimed at understanding the clinical and patient-reported outcomes (PROs) before, during and 1-year after delivery. : A total of 30 pregnant mothers with MS were recruited as part of the study.

Disease-modifying treatment, long-term outcomes and transition to progressive multiple sclerosis: data based on the New York State MS Consortium.

Background: The impact of disease-modifying treatments (DMTs) on multiple sclerosis (MS) long-term outcomes is continuously evolving. Retrospective analyses of large and long-term registries could provide information regarding general disease trajectories and risk factors that are commonly not investigated in shorter clinical trial settings.

Methods: Retrospective observational study of people with MS (pwMS) registered in New York State MS Consortium (NYSMSC) since 1996.

Patient-reported outcomes based on discontinuation or continuous treatment with natalizumab: New York State Multiple Sclerosis Consortium (NYSMSC) study.

Background: Patient-reported outcomes (PRO) are increasingly utilized as part of the routine clinical assessment in people with multiple sclerosis (pwMS). The long-term effect of disease modifying therapies (DMTs) and their discontinuation on PRO measures remains largely unknown.

Methods: Two pwMS groups treated with natalizumab were selected from the New York State MS Consortium (NYSMSC) database.

Patient-reported outcomes are the strongest predictors of disease disability in intramuscular interferon β-1a users.

Patient-reported outcomes (PROs) are valuable measures for routine clinical care of people with multiple sclerosis (pwMS). 646 pwMS treated with interferon-β-1a (IFN-β-1a) were retrospectively included from the New York State Multiple Sclerosis Consortium. Clinical and PRO data at enrollment and 3 year follow-up were collected.

Improvement in time to multiple sclerosis diagnosis: 25-year retrospective analysis from New York State MS Consortium (NYSMSC).

Judicious multiple sclerosis (MS) diagnosis and early start of disease modifying therapy significantly improves long-term disability outcomes in persons with MS (pwMS). Retrospective analysis based on 25-year New York State MS Consortium (NYSMSC) data determined the effect of changes in the respective diagnostic criteria in shortening the time between symptom onset to MS diagnosis. Based on 9378 current and historical MS cases, there was a significant decrease in time to diagnosis in pwMS from 1982-2001 to >2017 periods (average 4.

Impact of resilience, social support, and personality traits in patients with neuroinflammatory diseases during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Background And Objective: The COVID-19 pandemic negatively impacted the well-being of persons with neuroinflammatory diseases (pwNID). Identifying factors that influence the response to challenging conditions could guide supportive care.

Methods: 2185 pwNID and 1079 healthy controls (HCs) from five US centers completed an online survey regarding the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on physical and psychological well-being.

COVID-19 Vaccination in Multiple Sclerosis and Inflammatory Diseases: Effects from Disease-Modifying Therapy, Long-Term Seroprevalence and Breakthrough Infections.

Background: To determine the effect of disease-modifying therapies (DMT) on humoral postvaccine seroconversion, long-term humoral response, and breakthrough COVID-19 infections in persons with multiple sclerosis (PwMS) and other neuroinflammatory disorders. Methods: A total of 757 PwMS and other neuroinflammatory disorders were recruited in two MS centers and vaccinated with one of the FDA-approved vaccines (BNT162b2, mRNA-1273, Ad26.COV2.

A prospective study to validate the expanded timed get-up-and-go in a population with multiple sclerosis.

Background: Timed 25-foot walk (T25FW) test serves as gold standard in care of persons with multiple sclerosis (PwMS) and as walking measure of regulatory trials.

Objective: To validate and determine the clinical utility of Expanded Timed Get-Up and Go (ETGUG) as a disability measure in MS.

Methods: ETGUG intra-rater and inter-rater reproducibility was determined in 65 PwMS that were examined twice in two centres over 1-week.

Worsening physical functioning in patients with neuroinflammatory disease during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Objective: To quantify changes in psychological wellbeing and physical function as reported by people with neurological inflammatory disease (PwNID) during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods: 1134 PwNID and 868 control participants were recruited through five major academic medical centers in the Northeast/Mid-Atlantic U.S.

Vaccination Against SARS-CoV-2 in Neuroinflammatory Disease: Early Safety/Tolerability Data.

Background: Patients with autoimmune disease and on immunotherapy were largely excluded from seminal anti-SARS-CoV-2 vaccine trials. This has led to significant vaccine hesitancy in patients with neuroinflammatory diseases (NID); including, but not limited to: multiple sclerosis (MS), neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorders (NMOSD), neurosarcoidosis and myelin oligodendrocyte antibody-mediated disease (MOG-AD). Data is urgently needed to help guide clinical care in the NID population.

Discontinuation of disease modifying therapies is associated with disability progression regardless of prior stable disease and age.

Background: Multiple sclerosis (MS) patients with stable disease course might view continued treatment as unnecessary. However, guidelines regarding treatment discontinuation are currently lacking.

Objective: To assess the clinical course after treatment discontinuation in MS patients with long disease duration.

Hyperdense middle cerebral artery sign and response to combination of mechanical Thrombectomy plus intravenous thrombolysis in acute stroke patients.

Background And Purpose: Combining intra-arterial mechanical thrombectomy (IAMT) and intravenous thrombolysis (IVT) has shown to have an excellent recanalization rate and better clinical outcome in acute ischemic stroke (AIS) patients. Hyperdense middle cerebral artery sign (HMCAS) on pretreatment non-contrast head CT scan of AIS patients is one of the early ischemic radiological findings in middle cerebral artery territory AIS. We aimed to evaluate whether the presence of HMCAS predicts the outcome of AIS patients receiving combination therapy with IAMT and IVT.

Laboratory factors associated with symptomatic hemorrhagic conversion of acute stroke after systemic thrombolysis.

Background: Laboratory factors associated with hemorrhagic conversion (HC) after Intravenous thrombolysis with rtPA (IVT) for Acute Ischemic Stroke (AIS) remain nebulous despite advances in our knowledge of AIS. This study aimed to investigate the laboratory factors predisposing to HC in AIS patients receiving IVT.

Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of patients who received IV tPA for AIS at our comprehensive stroke center over a 9.

Epidemiology and treatment of multiple sclerosis in elderly populations.

The prevalence of multiple sclerosis (MS) and the age of affected patients are increasing owing to increased longevity of the general population and the availability of effective disease-modifying therapies. However, ageing presents unique challenges in patients with MS largely as a result of their increased frequency of age-related and MS-related comorbidities as well as transition of the disease course from an inflammatory to a neurodegenerative phenotype. Immunosenescence (the weakening of the immune system associated with natural ageing) might be at least partly responsible for this transition, which further complicates disease management.

Fatigue at enrollment predicts EDSS worsening in the New York State Multiple Sclerosis Consortium.

Background: Fatigue is one of the most common and distressing symptoms among persons with multiple sclerosis (pwMS).

Objective: The aim of this study is to evaluate fatigue as a predictor for disease worsening among pwMS.

Methods: In this retrospective cohort study of New York State MS Consortium (NYSMSC) registry, MS patients reporting moderate-to-severe fatigue at study enrollment ( = 2714) were frequency matched to less-fatigued subjects ( = 2714) on age, baseline Kurtzke Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS), disease duration, and MS phenotype.

Walking disability measures in multiple sclerosis patients: Correlations with MRI-derived global and microstructural damage.

Background: The relationship between walking disability in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients and their macro- and microstructural MRI-derived measures still remains unclear.

Objective: To assess the correlations between walking disability and MRI-derived lesion, atrophy, and microstructural/axonal integrity outcomes.

Methods: Seventy-one (71) MS patients were clinically examined, the expanded timed get-up and go (ETGUG), and timed 25-foot walk (T25FW) tests were assessed.

Fatigue and Mood States in Nursing Home and Nonambulatory Home-Based Patients with Multiple Sclerosis.

Background: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic, progressively disabling condition of the central nervous system. We sought to evaluate and compare mood states in patients with MS with increased disability residing in nursing homes and those receiving home-based care.

Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional analysis of the New York State Multiple Sclerosis Consortium to identify patients with MS using a Kurtzke Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) score of 7.

Ketogenic diet: Predictors of seizure control.

Background: The ketogenic diet is an effective non-pharmacologic treatment for medically resistant epilepsy. The aim of this study was to identify any predictors that may influence the response of ketogenic diet.

Methods: A retrospective chart review for all patients with medically resistant epilepsy was performed at a tertiary care epilepsy center from 1996 to 2012.

Low-Dose Medication and Long-Term Outcome in Myasthenia Gravis.

Objectives: Many advances have been made in the diagnosis, treatment, and management of myasthenia gravis (MG) and most patients will eventually progress to experience minimal manifestations (MM) of the disease or remission. However, there is a paucity of literature on medication dosing needed to achieve such a favorable clinical status in the long term. The objective of this article was to (1) study the course of MG and identify clinical predictors of maintenance of eventual disease remission or minimal manifestations and (2) determine if patients on low-dose medications have comparable MG Foundation of America (MGFA) scores and postintervention statuses (PIS) with those on conventional therapeutic dosing.

Time interval providing highest yield for initial EEG in patients with new onset seizures.

Purpose: Timing providing highest yield of initial electroencephalogram (EEG) after new onset unprovoked seizures, is an important and practical issue both in diagnosis and patient care. Current guidelines suggest routine EEG is the standard of care in work-up. However, yield of the initial EEG and exact timeframe in which to perform remain unclear and standardization in both adult and pediatric populations is still lacking.