Multiple Sclerosis Research Repository

“Disability progression unrelated to relapses in relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis: insights from the Swiss multiple sclerosis cohort study”: Lorscheider J et al

-Results: We included 917 RRMS patients with a median follow-up of 4.6 years. The roving baseline approach identified 198 (22%) patients experiencing CDW. Of these, 131 fulfilled the definition for PIRA (66% of patients with CDW, 14% of all eligible patients). The number of identified PIRA and CDW decreased when using a fixed baseline (92/157, 59%) or re-baselining (93/157, 59%). Highly effective DMT was associated with a lower risk for CDW (hazard ratio [HR] 0.4, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.2-0.7, p< 0.001) compared to no treatment. However, we observed only a trend regarding PIRA (HR 0.5, 95% CI 0.3-1.1, p=0.08), which disappeared when modelling treatment as a time-dependent covariate (HR 0.8, 95%CI 0.4-1.4, p= 0.393).-Conclusion: A relevant proportion of patients classified as RRMS experienced PIRA within a 5-year period, accounting for 59-66% of all CDW events. While highly effective DMT reduced the risk of CDW, we could not demonstrate a consistent effect on PIRA in patients with RRMS in our prospectively followed cohort study.