5 September 2006

website | contact us | donate

MSIF News

People with MS News

Research News

MS News

Making Connections

MSIF News


	Summaries of new MSIF activities, events, projects, programmes, resources, publications and more.

Growing number of Atlas of MS queries

MSIF is thrilled that, since its launch in the middle of August, 7,658 data queries have been run on the Atlas of MS website. The prevalence of MS globally continues to be the most popular search on the site.

UK charities to benefit from Free £1m Lottery

source: monday - The Charities Lottery

MSIF is one of the charities to benefit from monday – The Charities Lottery, who have a new promotion starting this week giving players a chance to win £1m in cash.

People with MS News


	Summaries of news, views and achievements from people with MS around the world.

Profile of the Month : January 2008

Satu Salonen

Country: Finland
Age: 55
Year of diagnosis: 1999
Occupation: Former company director, then pensioner and now author

English Spanish Italian German

Research News


	Summaries of all the latest research findings on MS selected by a team based at the Institute of Neurology, London.

Long-term clinical experience with weekly interferon beta-1a in relapsing multiple sclerosis

This surveillance study which looked at patients on interferon with a mean follow up time of 31 months confirmed that it is safe and effective at reducing relapse rate.

authors: Coppola G, Lanzillo R, Florio C, Orefice G, Vivo P, Ascione S, Schiavone V, Pagano A, Vacca G, De Michele G, Morra VB.

source: Eur J Neurol. 2006 Sep;13(9):1014-21.

Cord atrophy separates early primary progressive and relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis

Cervical cord atrophy on MRI was present in patients with early primary progressive but not early relapsing remitting MS. This may be useful for differentiating the two groups and helping understand the causes of disability in primary progressive MS.

authors: Bieniek M, Altmann DR, Davies GR, Ingle GT, Rashid W, Sastre-Garriga J, Thompson AJ, Miller DH.

source: J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. 2006 Sep;77(9):1036-9. Epub 2006 Jun 22.

Interferon beta-1a treatment in childhood and juvenile-onset multiple sclerosis

This small study investigated the safety and tolerability of interferon in children with MS. 22 out of 24 had no problems but two had significant side effects of worsening of depression and development of juvenile chronic arthritis.

authors: Tenembaum SN, Segura MJ.

source: Neurology. 2006 Aug 8;67(3):511-3. Epub 2006 Jun 14.

Treatment with interferon beta-1b delays conversion to clinically definite and McDonald MS in patients with clinically isolated syndromes

This multi-centre randomised double blind placebo controlled trial (BENEFIT) looked at patients with clinically isolated syndromes and two or more asymptomatic brain lesions and found that interferon slowed development of MS at the two-year time point. The trial continues to see if this benefit is sustained at five years.

authors: Kappos L, Polman CH, Freedman MS, Edan G, Hartung HP, Miller DH, Montalban X, Barkhof F, Bauer L, Jakobs P, Pohl C, Sandbrink R.

source: Neurology. 2006 Aug 16; [Epub ahead of print]

Remyelination is extensive in a subset of multiple sclerosis patients

This study found that there was great variation in the extent of remyelination of lesions and a fifth of MS patients showed evidence of extensive repair. The authors suggest these differences need to be taken into account when designing future treatment trials.

authors: Patrikios P, Stadelmann C, Kutzelnigg A, Rauschka H, Schmidbauer M, Laursen H, Sorensen PS, Bruck W, Lucchinetti C, Lassmann H.

source: Brain. 2006 Aug 18; [Epub ahead of print]

The risk of relapses in multiple sclerosis during systemic infections

This study helps clarify some of the possible reasons why there is a higher risk of MS relapses after systemic infection.

authors: Correale J, Fiol M, Gilmore W.

source: Neurology. 2006 Aug 22;67(4):652-9. Epub 2006 Jul 26.

Clinical and MRI features of Japanese patients with multiple sclerosis positive for NMO-IgG

This study looked at the recently discovered serum antibody marker for the optico-spinal form of MS called NMO-IgG and found it was present in 63 percent of cases. Its presence predicted longitudinally extensive spinal cord lesions and severe eye symptoms. It is not clear yet if it is pathogenic.

authors: Nakashima I, Fujihara K, Miyazawa I, Misu T, Narikawa K, Nakamura M, Watanabe S, Takahashi T, Nishiyama S, Shiga Y, Sato S, Weinshenker BG, Itoyama Y.

source: J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. 2006 Sep;77(9):1073-5. Epub 2006 Feb 27.

Multimodal evoked potentials to assess the evolution of multiple sclerosis: a longitudinal study

This study looked for links between clinical measures and electrophysiological measures in people with MS and found some correlations at cross-sectional level and baseline prediction of clinical progression.

authors: Leocani L, Rovaris M, Boneschi FM, Medaglini S, Rossi P, Martinelli V, Amadio S, Comi G.

source: J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. 2006 Sep;77(9):1030-5. Epub 2006 May 30.

Is the frequency of abnormalities on magnetic resonance imaging in isolated optic neuritis related to the prevalence of multiple sclerosis? A global comparison.

This observational study looked at UK patients with clinically isolated optic neuritis and found a higher proportion of asymptomatic brain lesions on MRI compared with studies from areas with lower prevalence of MS. The authors hypothesise that the risk of developing MS following isolated optic neuritis may be different depending upon the geographical location.

authors: Swanton JK, Fernando K, Dalton CM, Miszkiel KA, Thompson AJ, Plant GT, Miller DH.

source: J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. 2006 Sep;77(9):1070-2. Epub 2006 Jun

MS News


	Summaries of MS news from websites around the world.

Madrid 06 conference - "Research in MS: from basic science to QoL"

On 26 September 2006 MSIF, the European Multiple Sclerosis Platform (EMSP), the Asociación Española de Esclerosis Múltiple (AEDEM) and the Federación Española para la Lucha contra la Esclerosis Múltiple (FELEM) are holding a joint one day conference in Madrid, Spain, titled "Research in Multiple Sclerosis: From Basic Science to Quality of Life".

UK BBC programme on stem cells

source: UK MS Society

The UK BBC programme Newsnight has claimed that stem cells used by Advanced Cell Therapeutics for the treatment of MS may have come from a source not suitable for use in humans.

New appointment for MS Ireland

source: MS Ireland

MS Ireland is delighted to announce the appointment of its new Chief Executive, Anne Winslow. Anne comes with a wealth of experience in the community and voluntary sector, both in strategic management and service provision. The board looks forward to introducing her to the society and working with her in the future. Anne will take up her position in September.

MS Awareness Week in New Zealand

source: New Zealand MS Society

This week is MS Awareness Week in New Zealand. Local MS Societies around the country are focussing on support and educating the general public, employers and health professionals about MS.

Tell a friend

The email you subscribed with us is {{print email}}

Within this newsletter the following options are available: MSIF News; People with MS News; Research News and MS Society News. To amend your options please login to the 'My world of MS' online community where you can also read diary entries from people affected by MS, leave your own diary entries and send messages to other users. You can also change your email address, contact details and subscribe to our free publications.

If you have an RSS News Reader you can get the latest news syndicated to you by copying the following link to your Reader: Syndicate.

If you do not want to receive future issues of this newsletter or if you have received this in error, please accept our apologies and simply unsubscribe here

Multiple Sclerosis International Federation
3rd Floor Skyline House, 200 Union Street, SE1 0LX
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7620 1911
Fax: +44 (0) 20 7620 1922
Registered Charity: 1105321
Email: info@msif.org

Click here to learn more about the work of the Making Connections sponsor.