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
Latest News
First-line anti-CD20 therapy – the new standard of care in MS?
January 25, 2024SPECIAL REPORT
Over the past 15 years, most MS treatment trials have used an active control, which has generated substantial data with which to compare the efficacy and safety of starting treatment with a higher-efficacy versus lower-efficacy disease-modifying therapy (DMT). Read More
MS Awards 2023 – Oddities and observations
December 19, 2023Modelling MS Endowment
Move over EAE – researchers have introduced a new wrinkle to MS animal models. Seems that MS is remarkably similar to the necrotizing meningoencephalitis (NME) that affects Pug dogs (Windsor et al. Am J Vet Res 2023; epublished November 6, 2023). The condition is also known as Pug Dog encephalitis. As with MS, genetic factors and autoimmunity contribute to the etiology of NME. The early clinical courses are similar although the main pathological feature of NME is necrosis rather than demyelination. Interestingly, an earlier genome-wide association study of NME identified genes of interest, including DRB1 and DQA1, both of which play a role in MS (Greer et al. Tissue Antigens 2010;76:110-118). Read More
The year in review – 2023
December 12, 2023The year 2023 was marked by a number of anniversaries and what may be a turning point in the approach to MS research and clinical practice. Read More