Abstract
Objective To assess clinical characteristics, distribution of disease-modifying treatments (DMTs), and neuropsychological symptoms in a large cohort of patients with early-stage MS.
Methods The German National MS Cohort is a multicenter prospective longitudinal cohort study that has recruited DMT-naive patients with clinically isolated syndrome (CIS) and relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS) since 2010. We evaluated their baseline characteristics and the prevalence of neuropsychological symptoms.
Results Of 1,124 patients, with a 2.2:1 female-to-male ratio and median age at onset of 31.71 years (interquartile range [IQR]: 26.06–40.33), 44.6% and 55.3% had CIS and RRMS, respectively. The median Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) score at baseline was 1.5 (IQR: 1.0–2.0). A proportion of 67.8% of patients started DMT after a median time of 167.0 days (IQR 90.0–377.5) since the first manifestation. A total of 64.7% and 70.4% of the 762 patients receiving early DMT were classified as CIS and RRMS, respectively. Fatigue, depressive symptoms, and cognitive dysfunction were detected in 36.5%, 33.5%, and 14.7% of patients, respectively.
Conclusion Baseline characteristics of this large cohort of patients with early, untreated MS corroborated with other cohorts. Most patients received early DMT within the first year after disease onset, irrespective of a CIS or RRMS diagnosis. Despite the low EDSS score, neuropsychological symptoms affected a relevant proportion of patients.
Glossary
- BDI-II=
- Beck Depression Inventory II;
- BMI=
- body mass index;
- CI=
- confidence interval;
- CIS=
- clinically isolated syndrome;
- DMT=
- disease-modifying treatment;
- EDSS=
- Expanded Disability Status Scale;
- FSMC=
- Fatigue Scale for Motor and Cognitive Functions;
- IQR=
- interquartile range;
- MSFC=
- Multiple Sclerosis Functional Composite;
- MUSIC=
- Multiple Sclerosis Inventory of Cognition;
- RRMS=
- relapsing-remitting MS
Footnotes
↵* These authors contributed equally to the manuscript.
Funding information and disclosures are provided at the end of the article. Full disclosure form information provided by the authors is available with the full text of this article at Neurology.org/NN.
The Article Processing Charge was funded by the authors.
- Received November 5, 2017.
- Accepted in final form January 12, 2018.
- Copyright © 2018 The Author(s). Published by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. on behalf of the American Academy of Neurology.
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