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World MS Day update: more personalities lend their support; global campaign film now available in Vimeo format

Icelandic footballers Eiður Guðjohnsen, Barcelona FC, and Hermann Hreiðarsson, Portsmouth FC, and Wendy Booker, US climber with MS, have lent their support to the World MS Day campaign and our efforts to end MS.

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Profile of the Month : January 2010

Lori Schneider

Country: USA
Age: 52
Type of MS: rapidly progressing
Year of Diagnosis: 1999

"It was an amazing feeling to go step by step by step up Mount Everest with the World MS Day flag in my pack. Each step was hard and I had to concentrate on every aspect, and I had to really convince myself to keep going. It gave me a whole new feeling for people with MS who may have a hard time walking across a room. My difficulty on the mountain was short-lived, but I realised that some people with MS experience this level of difficulty with every step they take. I encourage them not to give up hope and to keep following their dreams!"


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A diffusion tensor imaging group study of the spinal cord in multiple sclerosis patients with and without T(2) spinal cord lesions

MS is an inflammatory-demyelinating disease of the central nervous system classically characterised by the presence of lesions in the white matter, seen with conventional MRI techniques. However, the presence of clinical disability does not always correlate with the presence of lesions on conventional MRI. The authors of this article compared the spinal cord of a group of healthy controls and a group of people with MS who did not have spinal cord lesions on the conventional MRI, by means of a new MRI technique called diffusion tensor imaging. This technique is based on the ability of water to move through the nervous tissue. They found that the spinal cord of people with MS showed abnormalities even in the absence of lesions, suggesting that these abnormalities could partially explain the accrual of disability in people with MS.

authors: Van Hecke W, Nagels G, Emonds G, Leemans A, Sijbers J, Van Goethem J, Parizel PM

source: J Magn Reson Imaging. 2009 Jun 25;30(1):25-34

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The development of patient-reported outcome indices for multiple sclerosis (PRIMUS)

In MS the perception of symptoms and how they impact quality of life varies significantly from one person to another. The perceived response to treatment, including rehabilitation, may also differ. In this article the authors aimed to evaluate a newly developed set of tests (called PRIMUS) which takes into account MS symptoms in a holistic way, from the point of view of the person with MS. The authors concluded that scores obtained from PRIMUS are reliable and very useful in detecting how the disease impacts on the person with MS.

authors: Doward L, McKenna S, Meads D, Twiss J, Eckert B

source: Mult Scler. 2009 Jun 25

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Cognitive dysfunction in primary progressive multiple sclerosis: a neuropsychological and MRI study

There are very few studies of cognitive dysfunction in people with primary progressive MS (PPMS). In this study the authors compared a group of people with primary progressive MS with a group of secondary progressive MS and a group of healthy volunteers. They found that (SPMS) people with MS scored lower than controls on some tests, such as those related to attention and information processing, verbal fluency and memory. However, people with PPMS and with SPMS performed tests similarly. Moreover, the authors found that people with a higher number of lesions performed worse than people with a lower lesion burden.

authors: Ukkonen M, Vahvelainen T, Hämäläinen P, Dastidar P, Elovaara I

source: Mult Scler. 2009 Jun 25

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Age of onset in concordant twins and other relative pairs with multiple sclerosis

Genes and environment seem to have an important role in the development of MS. Besides, the age of onset of MS may vary enormously amongst subjects and might have prognostic value. The authors of this article studied a large number of families where more than one family member had MS, in order to investigate how the percentage of genetic sharing may influence in the age of onset of the disease. Their results suggested that the higher the percentage of genetic sharing (i.e. twins), the more similar the age of onset of MS between the two members of the family. However, as identical (monozygotic) and non-identical (dizygotic) twins had similar behaviour in the concordance of age of onset, an effect of intrauterine hormonal environment was suggested. They also found that half-siblings from the same mother had more similar ages of onset of MS than half-siblings from the same father. This study may help us to to better understand the complexity of this disease, though further studies are needed.

authors: Sadovnick AD, Yee IM, Guimond C, Reis J, Dyment DA, Ebers GC

source: Am J Epidemiol. 2009 Jun 22

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Bolivian MS Association's first MS workshop takes place

On 19 June 2009 the Bolivian MS Association's first MS workshop took place in La Paz, Bolivia.

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Continuous disease-modifying treatment without interruptions provides better long-term outcomes in MS: presented at ENS

source: UK MS Trust

People with MS who adhere to their treatment with interferon (IFN) beta-1a without interruption have lower relapse and progression rates than people who do not not, said researchers here at the 19th Meeting of the European Neurological Society.

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45 New US projects launched to propel MS research

source: US National MS Society

The US National MS Society has just committed US$15.8 million to support 45 new MS research projects in the USA as part of its US$40 million international investment this year alone to spur momentum in cutting-edge MS research.

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Cancer drug could revolutionise MS treatment

source: UK MS Trust

Researchers in the UK believe a common cancer drug could revolutionise the treatment of MS.

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