Neurology

Fluid biomarkers: theory and practice

March 18, 2024

ACTRIMS Forum 2024

Considerable progress has been made in recent years in determining the place in therapy of fluid biomarkers of multiple sclerosis and other neurological disorders. Among the most studied are neurofilament-light chain (NfL), a marker of neuroaxonal damage, and glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), a marker of astrogliosis. The following summarizes fluid biomarker studies presented at the Americas Committee for Treatment and Research in MS (ACTRIMS) Forum, held February 29 to March 2, 2024, in West Palm Beach, Florida. Read More

Evobrutinib in MS – ACTRIMS Forum update

March 11, 2024

Merck KGaA announced in December the top-line results of its failed phase III trials of evobrutinib, a first-in-class Bruton’s tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitor, but few details were available at that time. Full results have now been presented by Dr. Xavier Montalban, Barcelona, Spain, at the ACTRIMS Forum conference, held February 29-March 2 in West Palm Beach, Florida. Read More

New consensus statement on MRI biomarkers in MS

February 20, 2024

The North American Imaging in Multiple Sclerosis (NAIMS) cooperative has issued a consensus statement on chronic active lesions (CAL) in MS and how biomarkers may be employed to evaluate them (Bagnato et al. Brain 2024; epublished January 16, 2024). Read More

No benefit with adjuvant vitamin D in MS: meta-analysis

February 12, 2024

A new meta-analysis (9 studies, N=867) has concluded that high-dose vitamin D3 supplementation does not have a significant impact on clinical outcomes in patients with MS (Mahler et al. Mult Scler Relat Disord 2024:82:105433). Read More

McDonald criteria 2024: what changes can we expect?

January 30, 2024

The International Advisory Committee on Clinical Trials in MS convened in Barcelona on November 29 to discuss the latest round of revisions to the McDonald diagnostic criteria. The criteria were last revised in 2017 (Thompson et al. Lancet Neurol 2018;17:162-173). The in-person meeting followed a series of virtual meetings of the group in 2022 to discuss some of the issues not addressed in the 2017 criteria, such as the role of the visual system in diagnosis, the use of high-field MRI and which biomarkers can be used to support an MS diagnosis. Read More