We sought to identify significant ulnar nerve conduction abnormalities and also to detect ulnar F-wave variable changes in patients with secondary progressive multiple sclerosis (MS). Conventional conduction study was performed unilaterally to ulnar nerves of eight men and 12 women with secondary progressive MS (mean age, 47.5 +/- 6.6 years), ...

AIM: Chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency (CCSVI) is a vascular condition characterized by anomalies of primary veins outside the skull that restrict normal outflow of blood from the brain. CCSVI was recently described as highly prevalent in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS), and can be non-invasively diagnosed by Doppler sonography (DS) ...

OBJECTIVES: The study was designed to find evidence that brain electrical activity associated with processing the abrupt appearance or disappearance of a sensory stimulus differed in the presence and absence of the neuropathological changes that are characteristic of multiple sclerosis (MS). METHODS: A subliminal stimulus (electrical field) was applied, and ...

AIM: Chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency (CCSVI) is associated with multiple sclerosis (MS). CCSVI is detected by transcranial and extracranial color-Doppler high-resolution examination (TCCS-ECD) and venography that permit to identify five types of venous malformations and four major (A-D) hemodynamic patterns of anomalous extracranial-extravertebral venous outflow. We investigated possible correlation between ...

AIM: The aim of this study is to compare the hemodynamics and the morphology of the internal jugular veins using colour-Doppler and B-mode sonongraphy in multiple sclerosis patients (MS) and in controls. METHODS: The internal jugular veins of 25 MS patients and 25 controls were examined using colour Doppler and ...

Oxidative stress through the changes in the levels of reactive oxygen species and antioxidative parameters can cause various neurological disorders. The aim of the present study was to show antioxidant activity (AOA) and malondialdehyde (MDA) levels in affected people with Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS) and multiple sclerosis (MS). A total of ...

The pyramidal pathway is frequently affected early on in multiple sclerosis (MS) and impaired motor performance is a major cause of disability. Pyramidal tract function can be assessed using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). TMS supports the diagnosis of MS, detecting corticospinal tract involvement and monitoring its course with or without ...

AIM: The aim of this open-label study was to assess extracranial Doppler criteria of chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency in multiple sclerosis patients. METHODS: Seventy patients were assessed: 49 with relapsing-remitting, 5 with primary progressive and 16 with secondary progressive multiple sclerosis. The patients were aged 15-58 years and they suffered ...

Definition of dysregulated immune components in multiple sclerosis may help in the identification of new therapeutic targets. Deviation of the interleukin 18 receptor 1 (IL18R1) is of particular interest since the receptor is critical for experimental neuroinflammation. The objective of this study was to determine whether expression of IL18R1 varies ...

Marfan syndrome (MS) is a dominant autosomal connective tissue disease that impacts multiple systems, such as the cardiovascular system, tissue viscoelastic properties, bone calcification matrix and, most specific to the present investigation, pulmonary parenchyma. The aim of the present study was to evaluate pulmonary function (PF) in patients with MS ...

Parkinsonism due to multiple sclerosis (MS) is rare. In previously reported patients with MS-induced parkinsonism, MS manifested first, followed a typical clinical course, and parkinsonism developed later in the course of the illness. We report a 52-year-old male presenting with parkinsonism as the initial manifestation of MS, in whom a ...

OBJECTIVES: Optic neuritis (ON) is a frequent initial manifestation of multiple sclerosis (MS). Autonomic failure affecting the pupillary function is known to exist in ON patients, and patients with MS are known to have more widespread autonomic dysfunction. For example, sudomotor dysfunction is well known in MS. We carried out ...

Prediction of long-term disability in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) is essential. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) measurement of brain volume may be of predictive value but sophisticated MRI techniques are often inaccessible in clinical practice. The corpus callosum index (CCI) is a normalized measurement that reflects changes of brain volume. ...

There is considerable evidence that prolactin (PRL) exerts immunomodulatory actions, thus being involved in the processes of autoimmune diseases. Animal studies suggest that elevated serum PRL levels may be related to neuroprotection or participate in remyelination after brain injury. To address this question, we estimated PRL levels in both serum ...

OBJECTIVE: We assessed the occurrence, extent, and frequency of formation of cortical lesions (CLs) in patients with relapsing-remitting (RR) and secondary progressive (SP) multiple sclerosis (MS), and their relationship with cortical atrophy and disability progression. METHODS: One-hundred seven MS patients (76 RRMS and 31 SPMS), enrolled in a prospective, longitudinal ...

Considering the multiplicity of symptoms associated with multiple sclerosis (MS), there is possibility that hypocretin system function might be involved in the pathogenesis of the disease. The current study aimed to investigate the hypocretin-1 levels in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of MS patients in relation to different neurological deficit measures including: ...

The aim of this study was to investigate the selected indicators of multiple sclerosis (MS) in Herzegovina (Western Herzegovina Canton and Herzegovina-Neretva Canton). By using all available health and medical sources in the studied area and using McDonald's criteria, a total of 96 patients were identified in the period from ...

Swallowing disorders are commonly observed in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients. The complications of dysphagia are common causes of morbidity and death in late stages of MS. However, dysphagia in MS usually receives limited attention. The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence of different kinds of swallowing disorders ...

A chronic state of impaired venous drainage from the central nervous system, termed chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency (CCSVI), is claimed to be a pathologic phenomenon exclusively seen in multiple sclerosis (MS). This has invigorated the causal debate of MS and generated immense interest in the patient and scientific communities. A ...

The objective of the study was to evaluate whether the presence of oligoclonal bands (OB) adds information in predicting CIS conversion to clinical definite multiple sclerosis (CDMS) and conversion time to CDMS. From 1998 to 2006, CIS patients were included in a prospective study. Patients underwent brain MRI and OB ...

Previous autoantibody (AAb) studies in multiple sclerosis MS have produced conflicting results. The objective of this study was to determine AAb frequency and association with the HLA-DRB1 genotype. Antinuclear antibody, antithyroid peroxidase and anti-aquaporin-4 assays and HLA-DRB1 genotyping were performed in 198 MS patients and 188 controls. There were no ...

Lack of balance and falls are common and disabling symptoms of multiple sclerosis. The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of a novel visuo-proprioceptive feedback training in ameliorating balance and reducing the risk of falls. Patients with multiple sclerosis with unrestricted walking ability and healthy age/sex-matched controls ...

Oxidative stress markers have been found in nervous and peripheral tissues of familial and sporadic amyotrophic lateral sclerosis patients. Here, we evaluated the activity of some antioxidant enzymes glutathione peroxidase, glutathione reductase and Cu-Zn superoxide dismutase in erythrocyte, the marker of non-enzymatic antioxidant response (total antioxidant status), as well as ...

Thinning of the retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) of clinically unaffected eyes is seen in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). It is uncertain when this thinning occurs, and whether ongoing RNFL loss can be measured over time with optical coherence tomography (OCT). Using time-domain OCT, we studied 34 patients with ...

Glatiramer acetate (GA) is a random copolymer used as an immunomodulatory treatment in relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RR-MS). Its mechanisms of action are poorly understood, and several hypotheses have been put forward, the majority of which rely on in vitro studies. It has been hypothesised that further to processing by APC, ...

It has been known that each component of the metabolic syndrome (MS) has an atherogenic potential and increases the risk of cardiovascular events. Therefore, patients who have MS are candidates for the development of atherosclerosis and accompanying complications. In this study, the authors assessed the levels of acute phase reactants ...

Multiple sclerosis (MS) probably occurs by oxidative, inflammatory and autoimmune mechanisms. This study investigated the influence of statin on the stability of erythrocyte membranes in MS patients. The population was composed of one group with simvastatin therapy (20 mg/day), another group without statin therapy and a healthy control group. The ...

Distinction between acute disseminated encephalomyelitis and acute multiple sclerosis is often clinically difficult. Perivenous demyelination is the pathological hallmark of acute disseminated encephalomyelitis, whereas confluent demyelination is the hallmark of acute multiple sclerosis. We investigated whether perivenous demyelination versus confluent demyelination distinguishes acute disseminated encephalomyelitis from multiple sclerosis. Patients with ...

BACKGROUND: African American (AA) patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) have more rapid disease progression and poorer responses to disease-modifying therapies than white American (WA) patients with MS. OBJECTIVES: To investigate brain MRI characteristics in AA compared to WA in a cohort of consecutive patients with MS. METHODS: We studied 567 ...

BACKGROUND: Neuromyelitis Optica (NMO) is a severe inflammatory demyelinating disease of the central nervous system with distinguishing features from multiple sclerosis (MS). NMO has an unknown etiology with poor prognosis in which anti-aquaporin-4 receptor IgG seems to play a major role. The purpose of this study is to represent a ...

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a neuro-inflammatory and neurodegenerative disease that results in damage to myelin sheaths and axons in the central nervous system and which preferentially affects young adults. We performed a proteomics-based biomarker discovery study in which cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) from MS and control individuals was analyzed (n=112). Ten ...

The aim of this study was to evaluate the correlation between functional eye examinations (visual evoked potentials: VEPs; pattern electroretinogram: PERG) and structural measurements of the optic nerve (optical coherence tomography: OCT; scanning laser polarimetry: GDx) in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). Patients with definite MS and disease-free controls were ...

There is growing interest for identification of new targets for biomarker development in multiple sclerosis (MS). The goal of this study was to compare the concentration and the methylation patterns of cell-free plasma DNA (cfpDNA) in patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) and healthy individuals. Three 30-patient cohorts were examined: ...

OBJECTIVES: We investigated motor network function in patients with benign multiple sclerosis (BMS) and contrasted the results with those obtained from patients with secondary progressive multiple sclerosis (SPMS) and healthy controls (HC) to elucidate better the factors associated with a favorable clinical evolution in multiple sclerosis (MS). METHODS: Diffusion tensor ...

KIF1B gene represents the first non-inflammatory gene with a putative role on axonal loss and neurodegeneration found to be associated with multiple sclerosis (MS). The objective of this study is to test the association of the rs10492972 C allelic variant of KIF1B gene in a large Italian cohort of patients ...

Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a disease with a wide-ranging impact on functional status. The aim of the study was to examine the added value of simultaneously evaluating fatigue, personal ADL and handwriting performance as indicators for functional decline among patients with MS. Participants were 50 outpatients with MS and 26 ...

BACKGROUND: Th17 cells are thought to contribute to the immunopathology of allergic and autoimmune conditions. Their role in multiple sclerosis (MS) pathology remains to be fully elucidated. OBJECTIVE: To assess peripheral blood Th17 responses in patients with MS compared to controls. METHODS: We isolated peripheral blood mononuclear cells from 41 ...

To describe functioning and disability in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) according to the model endorsed by the International Classification of Functioning Disability and Health (ICF). Adult patients with MS were consecutively enrolled. The Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS), the WHO Disability Assessment Schedule II (WHO-DAS II) and the ICF ...

Elevated levels of macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF) have been observed in the cerebrospinal fluid of patients with multiple sclerosis. This study was designed to determine if MIF gene polymorphisms are associated with multiple sclerosis and disease severity. In total, 120 relapsing-remitting patients with multiple sclerosis and 120 control subjects ...

BACKGROUND: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is frequently diagnosed during a person's most productive years, and because life expectancy for patients with MS approaches that of the general population, MS is associated with a considerable economic burden from medical costs and lost productivity. In addition, there is a substantial negative impact on ...

BACKGROUND: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a complex, inflammatory and neurodegenerative disease of the central nervous system leading to long-term disability. Recent studies indicate a close association between inflammation and neurodegeneration in all lesions and disease stages of MS. Prolyl oligopeptidase (POP) is a proline-specific serine protease that cleaves several neuroactive ...

To evaluate the effect of motion stimulation without changing binocular disparity on stereopsis in strabismic patients. Static and moving stereopsis were measured in 120 normal children and 30 strabismic patients (9 esotropia, 14 exotropia, 7 intermittent exotropia). Using a portable game device (PSP; SONY, Japan), we created stereoscopic targets and ...

Background. We sought to determine and compare the prevalence of the Metabolic Syndrome (MS) in patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) utilizing the new International Diabetes Federation (IDF) definition with the older National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP) definition. We also examined the clinical utility of MS in this context. Methods. ...

Recently the reduction of the retinal nerve fibre layer (RNFL) was suggested to be associated with diffuse axonal damage in the whole CNS of multiple sclerosis (MS) patients. However, several points are still under discussion. (1) Is high resolution optical coherence tomography (OCT) required to detect the partly very subtle ...

Autonomic dysfunction is common in patients suffering from multiple sclerosis (MS) and orthostatic dizziness occurs in almost 50% of these patients. However, there have been no reports on postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS) in patients suffering from MS. The patients were included for analysis in this study if they had ...

Neuromyelitis optica (NMO) is an inflammatory demyelinating disease that predominantly affects the optic nerves and the spinal cord, and is possibly mediated by an immune mechanism distinct from that of multiple sclerosis (MS). Central scotoma is recognized as a characteristic visual field defect pattern of optic neuritis (ON), however, the ...

Bone marrow transplantation (BMT) was introduced as a treatment option 15 years ago for severe, drug-resistant multiple sclerosis (MS). Up until now, BMT has been undertaken in relatively few patients worldwide, with moderate success, and recent studies suggest that patients with early, highly aggressive MS benefit most from this treatment. ...

We sought to examine the frequency of abnormal echocardiographic findings in patients with tuberous sclerosis complex. In a retrospective cohort study, we included all patients with known tuberous sclerosis complex who had been sent to our cardiology department for echocardiographic screening from 1995 through August 2003 (n=56). Two research scientists ...

BACKGROUND: The objective of this study was to correlate the detection of neutralizing antibodies (NAbs) by the cytopathic effect (CPE) assay, with the expression of myxovirus resistance protein A (MxA), and the ratio between matrix metalloproteinase 9 (MMP-9) and its tissular inhibitor (TIMP-1), in order to evaluate their usefulness as ...

Our aim was to measure cerebellum volume (CV), sclerotic plaque numbers (PN), and plaque surface area (SA) in the parietal lobe, and to investigate the relationship between CV and PN or SA in the parietal lobe, and the clinical status of patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). MRIs were performed in ...