Scoping review of clinical decision support systems for multiple sclerosis management: Leveraging information technology and massive health data.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a complex autoimmune disease of the central nervous system, with numerous therapeutic options, but a lack of biomarkers to support a mechanistic approach to precision medicine. A computational approach to precision medicine could proceed from clinical decision support systems (CDSSs). They are digital tools aiming to empower physicians through the clinical applications of information technology and massive data. However, the process of their clinical development is still maturing; we aimed to review it in the field of MS. METHODS: For this scoping review, we screened systematically the PubMed database. We identified 24 articles reporting 14 CDSS projects and compared their technical and software development aspects. RESULTS: The projects position themselves in various contexts of usage with various algorithmic approaches: expert systems, CDSSs based on similar patients' data visualization, and model-based CDSSs implementing mathematical predictive models. So far, no project has completed its clinical development up to certification for clinical use with global release. Some CDSSs have been replaced at subsequent project iterations. The most advanced projects did not necessarily report every step of clinical development in a dedicated article (proof of concept, offline validation, refined prototype, live clinical evaluation, comparative prospective evaluation). They seek different software distribution options to integrate into health care: internal usage, "peer-to-peer," and marketing distribution. CONCLUSIONS: This review illustrates the potential of clinical applications of information technology and massive data to support MS management and helps clarify the roadmap for future projects as a multidisciplinary and multistep process.

Long-term follow-up of patients with relapsing multiple sclerosis from the CLARITY/CLARITY Extension cohort of CLASSIC-MS: An ambispective study.

BACKGROUND: CLASSIC-MS evaluated the long-term efficacy of cladribine tablets in patients with relapsing multiple sclerosis. OBJECTIVE: Report long-term mobility and disability beyond treatment courses received in CLARITY/CLARITY Extension. METHODS: This analysis represents CLASSIC-MS patients who participated in CLARITY with/without participation in CLARITY Extension, and received ⩾1 course of cladribine tablets or placebo (N = 435). Primary objective includes evaluation of long-term mobility (no wheelchair use in the 3 months prior to first visit in CLASSIC-MS and not bedridden at any time since last parent study dose (LPSD), i.e. Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) score <7). Secondary objective includes long-term disability status (no use of an ambulatory device (EDSS < 6) at any time since LPSD). RESULTS: At CLASSIC-MS baseline, mean ± standard deviation EDSS score was 3.9 ± 2.1 and the median time since LPSD was 10.9 (range = 9.3-14.9) years. Cladribine tablets-exposed population: 90.6% (N = 394), including 160 patients who received a cumulative dose of 3.5 mg/kg over 2 years. Patients not using a wheelchair and not bedridden: exposed, 90.0%; unexposed, 77.8%. Patients with no use of an ambulatory device: exposed, 81.2%; unexposed, 75.6%. CONCLUSION: With a median 10.9 years' follow-up after CLARITY/CLARITY Extension, findings suggest the sustained long-term mobility and disability benefits of cladribine tablets.

Body mass index as a predictor of MS activity and progression among participants in BENEFIT.

BACKGROUND: There is a lack of studies on the association between obesity and conversion from a clinically isolated syndrome (CIS) to multiple sclerosis (MS). OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to determine whether obesity predicts disease activity and prognosis in patients with CIS. METHODS: Body mass index (BMI) at baseline was available for 464 patients with CIS in BENEFIT. Obesity was defined as BMI ⩾ 30 kg/m2 and normal weight as 18.5 ⩽ BMI < 25. Patients were followed up for 5 years clinically and by magnetic resonance imaging. Hazard of conversion to clinically definite (CDMS) or to 2001 McDonald criteria (MDMS) MS, annual rate of relapse, sustained progression on Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS), change in brain and lesion volume, and development of new brain lesions were evaluated. RESULTS: Obese individuals were 39% more likely to convert to MDMS (95% CI: 1.02-1.91, p = 0.04) and had a 59% (95% CI: 1.01-2.31, p = 0.03) higher rate of relapse than individuals with normal weight. No associations were observed between obesity and conversion to CDMS, sustained progression on EDSS or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) outcomes, except for a larger reduction of brain volume in obese smokers as compared to normal weight smokers (-0.82%; 95% CI: -1.51 to -0.12, p = 0.02). CONCLUSION: Obesity was associated with faster conversion to MS (MDMS) and a higher relapse rate.

Disability Progression in Multiple Sclerosis Patients using Early First-line Treatments.

BACKGROUND: Therapeutic management of relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) has evolved towards early treatment. The objective was to assess the impact of early treatment initiation on disability progression among RRMS first-line treated patients. METHODS: This study included all incident RRMS cases starting interferon or glatiramer acetate for the first time from 1996/01/01 to 2012/31/12 (N=5,279) from ten MS expert OFSEP centers (Observatoire Français de la Sclérose en Plaques). The delay from treatment start to attain an irreversible Expanded Disability Status Scale score of 3.0 were compared between "Early" group (N= 1,882; treated within 12 months following MS clinical onset) and "Later" group using propensity score weighted Kaplan-Meier methods, overall and stratified by age. RESULTS: Overall, the restricted mean time before reaching EDSS 3.0 (RMST) from treatment start was 11 years and two months for patients treated within the year following MS clinical onset and 10 years and seven months for patients treated later. Thus, early treated patients gained 7 months (95% CI: [4-11] months) in the time to reach EDSS 3.0 compared to patients treated later (treatment start delayed by 28 months). The difference in RMST was respectively six months (95% CI: [1-10] months) and 14 months (95% CI: [4-24] months) in the "≤40 years" age group and in the ">40 years" age group, in favour of early group. . CONCLUSIONS: Early treatment initiation resulted in a significant reduction of disability progression among patients with RRMS, and also among older patients.

Multiple sclerosis lesions segmentation from multiple experts: The MICCAI 2016 challenge dataset.

MRI plays a crucial role in multiple sclerosis diagnostic and patient follow-up. In particular, the delineation of T2-FLAIR hyperintense lesions is crucial although mostly performed manually - a tedious task. Many methods have thus been proposed to automate this task. However, sufficiently large datasets with a thorough expert manual segmentation are still lacking to evaluate these methods. We present a unique dataset for MS lesions segmentation evaluation. It consists of 53 patients acquired on 4 different scanners with a harmonized protocol. Hyperintense lesions on FLAIR were manually delineated on each patient by 7 experts with control on T2 sequence, and gathered in a consensus segmentation for evaluation. We provide raw and preprocessed data and a split of the dataset into training and testing data, the latter including data from a scanner not present in the training dataset. We strongly believe that this dataset will become a reference in MS lesions segmentation evaluation, allowing to evaluate many aspects: evaluation of performance on unseen scanner, comparison to individual experts performance, comparison to other challengers who already used this dataset, etc.

Cumulative effects of therapies on disability in relapsing multiple sclerosis.

BACKGROUND: Long-term effectiveness of treatment remains a key question in multiple sclerosis (MS) and the cumulative effects of past treatment have not been investigated so far. OBJECTIVE: Explore the relationship between treatment exposure and disability risk in patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS). METHODS: A total of 2285 adult patients from the French nationwide cohort were included. Outcomes were irreversible EDSS4, and conversion to secondary progression of multiple sclerosis (SPMS). Associations between treatments and risk of disability were assessed using a novel weighted cumulative exposure model, assuming a 3-year lag to account for reverse causality. This flexible approach accounts for past exposure in a multivariate Cox proportional hazards model by computing a weight function. RESULTS: At baseline, mean ± standard deviation age of patients was 33.4 ± 8.9 years and 75.0% were women. A 15-year continuous treatment starting 20 years ago was associated with a decrease in risk of 26% for irreversible EDSS4, and 34% for SPMS compared to a 5-year treatment starting 10 years ago. The risk of disability decreased with increasing duration of exposure to disease-modifying treatment (DMT). CONCLUSION: Long-term use of treatments in RRMS has a stronger beneficial cumulative impact than only early uses and delays the occurrence of moderate disability and conversion to SPMS.

Differential item functioning of the Arm function in Multiple Sclerosis Questionnaire (AMSQ) by language, a study in six countries.

BACKGROUND: The Arm function in Multiple Sclerosis Questionnaire (AMSQ) has been developed as a self-reported measure of arm and hand functioning for patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). The AMSQ was originally developed in Dutch and to date translated into five languages (i.e. English, German, Spanish, French, and Italian). OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to evaluate differential item functioning (DIF) of the AMSQ in these languages. METHODS: We performed DIF analyses, using "language" as the polytomous group variable. To detect DIF, logistic regression and item response theory principles were applied. Multiple logistic regression models were evaluated. We used a pseudo R2 value of 0.02 or more as the DIF threshold. RESULTS: A total of 1733 male and female patients with all subtypes of MS were included. The DIF analysis for the whole dataset showed no uniform or non-uniform DIF on any of the 31 items. All R2 values were below 0.02. CONCLUSION: The AMSQ is validated in six languages. All items have the same meaning to MS patients in Dutch, English, German, Spanish, French, and Italian. This validation study enables use of the AMSQ in international studies, for monitoring treatment response and disease progression.

The introduction of new medications in pediatric multiple sclerosis: Open issues and challenges.

Disease-modifying drugs (DMDs) for multiple sclerosis (MS) have been evaluated in pediatric patients in observational studies demonstrating a similar, even better clinical effect compared to adults, with a similar safety. Only fingolimod has been tested in a randomized controlled trial (RCT) and is approved for pediatric multiple sclerosis (ped-MS). Numerous methodological, practical, and ethical issues underline that RCTs are difficult to conduct in ped-MS. This also creates a lack of safety information. To facilitate the availability of new agents in ped-MS, we encourage to develop a different approach based on pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic studies to yield information on optimal doses and implementation of obligatory registries to obtain information on safety as primary endpoint.

Determinants of therapeutic lag in multiple sclerosis.

BACKGROUND: A delayed onset of treatment effect, termed therapeutic lag, may influence the assessment of treatment response in some patient subgroups. OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study is to explore the associations of patient and disease characteristics with therapeutic lag on relapses and disability accumulation. METHODS: Data from MSBase, a multinational multiple sclerosis (MS) registry, and OFSEP, the French MS registry, were used. Patients diagnosed with MS, minimum 1 year of exposure to MS treatment and 3 years of pre-treatment follow-up, were included in the analysis. Studied outcomes were incidence of relapses and disability accumulation. Therapeutic lag was calculated using an objective, validated method in subgroups stratified by patient and disease characteristics. Therapeutic lag under specific circumstances was then estimated in subgroups defined by combinations of clinical and demographic determinants. RESULTS: High baseline disability scores, annualised relapse rate (ARR) ⩾ 1 and male sex were associated with longer therapeutic lag on disability progression in sufficiently populated groups: females with expanded disability status scale (EDSS) < 6 and ARR < 1 had mean lag of 26.6 weeks (95% CI = 18.2-34.9), males with EDSS < 6 and ARR < 1 31.0 weeks (95% CI = 25.3-36.8), females with EDSS < 6 and ARR ⩾ 1 44.8 weeks (95% CI = 24.5-65.1), and females with EDSS ⩾ 6 and ARR < 1 54.3 weeks (95% CI = 47.2-61.5). CONCLUSIONS: Pre-treatment EDSS and ARR are the most important determinants of therapeutic lag.

Assessing the experience of the quality of care of patients living with multiple sclerosis and their caregivers: The MusiCare questionnaire.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Patients with a chronic illness, such as multiple sclerosis (MS), and their natural caregivers have a specific experience of healthcare and health services. These experiences need to be assessed to evaluate the quality of care. Our objective was to develop a French-language questionnaire to evaluate the quality of care as experienced by MS patients and their natural caregivers. METHODS: Eligible patients had been diagnosed with MS according to the McDonald criteria. Eligible caregivers were individuals designated by the patients. The MusiCare questionnaire was developed in two standard phases: (i) item generation, based on interviews with patients and caregivers; and (ii) validation, consisting of validity, reliability, external validity, reproducibility, and responsiveness measures. RESULTS: In total, 1088 patients (n = 660) and caregivers (n = 488) were recruited. The initial 64-item version of MusiCare was administered to a random subsample (n = 748). The validation process generated a 35-item questionnaire. Internal consistency and scalability were satisfactory. Testing of the external validity revealed expected associations between MusiCare scores and sociodemographic and clinical data. The questionnaire showed good reproducibility and responsiveness. CONCLUSIONS: The availability of a reliable and validated French-language self-report questionnaire probing the experience of the quality of care for MS will allow the feedback of patients and caregivers to be incorporated into a continuous healthcare quality-improvement strategy.

Untreated patients with multiple sclerosis: A study of French expert centers.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Disease-modifying therapies (DMTs) have an impact on relapses and disease progression. Nonetheless, many patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) remain untreated. The objectives of the present study were to determine the proportion of untreated patients with MS followed in expert centers in France and to determine the predictive factors of nontreatment. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective cohort study. Data were extracted from the 38 centers participating in the European Database for Multiple Sclerosis (EDMUS) on December 15, 2018, and patients with MS seen at least once during the study period (from June 15, 2016 to June 14, 2017) were included. RESULTS: Of the 21,189 patients with MS (age 47.1 ± 13.1 years; Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) score 3.4 ± 2.4), 6,631 (31.3%; 95% confidence interval [CI] 30.7-31.9) were not receiving any DMT. Although patients with a relapsing-remitting course (n = 11,693) were the most likely to receive DMT, 14.8% (95% CI 14.2-15.4) were still untreated (6.8% never treated). After multivariate analysis among patients with relapsing-remitting MS, the main factors explaining never having been treated were: not having ≥9 lesions on brain magnetic resonance imaging (odds ratio [OR] 0.52 [95% CI 0.44-0.61]) and lower EDSS score (OR 0.78 [95% CI 0.74-0.82]). Most patients with progressive MS (50.4% for secondary and 64.2% for primary progressive MS) did not receive any DMT during the study period, while 11.6% of patients with secondary and 34.0% of patients with primary progressive MS had never received any DMT. CONCLUSION: A significant proportion of patients with MS did not receive any DMT, even though such treatments are reimbursed by the healthcare system for French patients. This result highlights the unmet need for current DMTs for a large subgroup of patients with MS.

Multiple sclerosis lesions in motor tracts from brain to cervical cord: spatial distribution and correlation with disability.

Despite important efforts to solve the clinico-radiological paradox, correlation between lesion load and physical disability in patients with multiple sclerosis remains modest. One hypothesis could be that lesion location in corticospinal tracts plays a key role in explaining motor impairment. In this study, we describe the distribution of lesions along the corticospinal tracts from the cortex to the cervical spinal cord in patients with various disease phenotypes and disability status. We also assess the link between lesion load and location within corticospinal tracts, and disability at baseline and 2-year follow-up. We retrospectively included 290 patients (22 clinically isolated syndrome, 198 relapsing remitting, 39 secondary progressive, 31 primary progressive multiple sclerosis) from eight sites. Lesions were segmented on both brain (T2-FLAIR or T2-weighted) and cervical (axial T2- or T2*-weighted) MRI scans. Data were processed using an automated and publicly available pipeline. Brain, brainstem and spinal cord portions of the corticospinal tracts were identified using probabilistic atlases to measure the lesion volume fraction. Lesion frequency maps were produced for each phenotype and disability scores assessed with Expanded Disability Status Scale score and pyramidal functional system score. Results show that lesions were not homogeneously distributed along the corticospinal tracts, with the highest lesion frequency in the corona radiata and between C2 and C4 vertebral levels. The lesion volume fraction in the corticospinal tracts was higher in secondary and primary progressive patients (mean = 3.6 ± 2.7% and 2.9 ± 2.4%), compared to relapsing-remitting patients (1.6 ± 2.1%, both P < 0.0001). Voxel-wise analyses confirmed that lesion frequency was higher in progressive compared to relapsing-remitting patients, with significant bilateral clusters in the spinal cord corticospinal tracts (P < 0.01). The baseline Expanded Disability Status Scale score was associated with lesion volume fraction within the brain (r = 0.31, P < 0.0001), brainstem (r = 0.45, P < 0.0001) and spinal cord (r = 0.57, P < 0.0001) corticospinal tracts. The spinal cord corticospinal tracts lesion volume fraction remained the strongest factor in the multiple linear regression model, independently from cord atrophy. Baseline spinal cord corticospinal tracts lesion volume fraction was also associated with disability progression at 2-year follow-up (P = 0.003). Our results suggest a cumulative effect of lesions within the corticospinal tracts along the brain, brainstem and spinal cord portions to explain physical disability in multiple sclerosis patients, with a predominant impact of intramedullary lesions.

Decreasing impact of late relapses on disability worsening in secondary progressive multiple sclerosis.

BACKGROUND: Changes in relapse activity during secondary progressive multiple sclerosis (SPMS) need to be accurately characterized in order to identify patients who might benefit from continuing disease-modifying therapies. OBJECTIVE: To describe relapse occurrence in patients with SPMS during long-term follow-up and assess its impact on disability worsening. METHODS: This retrospective cohort study included 506 patients. We assessed the influence of relapses on time from SPMS onset to an Expanded Disability Status Scale score of 6 (EDSS 6), and on irreversible worsening of EDSS scores across different periods. RESULTS: The annualized relapse rate (ARR) decreased with patient's age (mean reduction of 43% per decade) and SPMS duration (mean reduction of 46% every 5 years). Post-progression relapses were associated with shorter time from secondary progressive (SP) phase onset to EDSS 6 (hazard ratio (HR) = 1.29, 95% confidence interval (CI) = (1.01, 1.64)). Relapse occurrence during the first 3 years and 3-5 years after SP onset was associated with an increased risk of irreversible EDSS worsening (OR = 3.12 (1.54, 6.31) and 2.04 (1.16, 3.58)). This association was no longer significant after 5 years. CONCLUSION: The occurrence of relapses was a marker of short-term disability progression during early SPMS, but did not have decisive impact in later SPMS.

High-dose biotin in progressive multiple sclerosis: A prospective study of 178 patients in routine clinical practice.

BACKGROUND: A recent controlled trial suggested that high-dose biotin supplementation reverses disability progression in patients with progressive multiple sclerosis. OBJECTIVE: To analyze the impact of high-dose biotin in routine clinical practice on disability progression at 12 months. METHODS: Progressive multiple sclerosis patients who started high-dose biotin at Nantes or Rennes Hospital between 3 June 2015 and 15 September 2017 were included in this prospective study. Disability outcome measures, patient-reported outcome measures, relapses, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data, and adverse events were collected at baseline, 6, and 12 months. RESULTS: A total of 178 patients were included. At baseline, patients were 52.0 ± 9.4 years old, mean Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) score was 6.1 ± 1.3, mean disease duration was 16.9 ± 9.5 years. At 12 months, 3.8% of the patients had an improved EDSS score. Regarding the other disability scales, scores either remained stable or increased significantly. In total, 47.4% of the patients described stability, 27.6% felt an improvement, and 25% described a worsening. Four patients (2.2%) had a relapse. Of the 74 patients (41.6%) who underwent an MRI, 20 (27.0%) had new T2 lesions, 8 (10.8%) had gadolinium-enhancing lesions. Twenty-five (14%) reported adverse event. CONCLUSION: In this study, high-dose biotin did not seem to be associated with a clear improvement in disability.

COVID-19 in people with multiple sclerosis: A global data sharing initiative.

BACKGROUND: We need high-quality data to assess the determinants for COVID-19 severity in people with MS (PwMS). Several studies have recently emerged but there is great benefit in aligning data collection efforts at a global scale. OBJECTIVES: Our mission is to scale-up COVID-19 data collection efforts and provide the MS community with data-driven insights as soon as possible. METHODS: Numerous stakeholders were brought together. Small dedicated interdisciplinary task forces were created to speed-up the formulation of the study design and work plan. First step was to agree upon a COVID-19 MS core data set. Second, we worked on providing a user-friendly and rapid pipeline to share COVID-19 data at a global scale. RESULTS: The COVID-19 MS core data set was agreed within 48 hours. To date, 23 data collection partners are involved and the first data imports have been performed successfully. Data processing and analysis is an on-going process. CONCLUSIONS: We reached a consensus on a core data set and established data sharing processes with multiple partners to address an urgent need for information to guide clinical practice. First results show that partners are motivated to share data to attain the ultimate joint goal: better understand the effect of COVID-19 in PwMS.

Multiple sclerosis: effect of beta interferon treatment on survival.

Worldwide, the beta interferons remain the most commonly prescribed disease-modifying drugs for multiple sclerosis. However, it is unclear if they alter survival. We investigated the association between beta interferon and mortality in the 'real-world' setting. This was a multi-centre population-based observational study of patients with relapsing-onset multiple sclerosis who were initially registered at a clinic in British Columbia, Canada (1980-2004) or Rennes, France (1976-2013). Data on this cohort were accessed from the clinical multiple sclerosis databases and from individually linked health administrative data; all data were collected prospectively. Participants were followed from the latter of their first multiple sclerosis clinic visit, 18th birthday or 1 January 1996; until death, emigration or 31 December 2013. Only those who were naïve to disease-modifying therapy and immunosuppressant treatment of multiple sclerosis at the start of their follow-up were included in the analysis. A nested case-control approach was used. Up to 20 controls, matched to cases (deaths) by country, sex, age ± 5 years, year and disability level at study entry, were randomly selected from the cohort by incidence density sampling. The associations between all-cause mortality and at least 6 months beta interferon exposure, and also cumulative exposure ('low', 6 months to 3 years; and 'high', >3 years), were estimated by conditional logistic regression adjusting for treatment with other disease-modifying therapies and age in years. Further analyses included separate analyses by sex and country, additional adjustment for comorbidity burden in the Canadian cohort, and estimation of the association between beta interferon and multiple sclerosis-related death in both countries. Among 5989 participants (75% female) with a mean age of 42 (standard deviation, SD 11) years at study entry, there were 742 deaths (70% female) and the mean age at death was 61 (SD 13) years. Of these cases, 649 were matched to between one and 20 controls. Results of the conditional logistic regression analyses are expressed as adjusted odds ratios with 95% confidence intervals. The odds of beta interferon exposure were 32% lower among cases than controls (0.68; 0.53-0.89). Increased survival was associated with >3 years beta interferon exposure (0.44; 0.30-0.66), but not between 6 months and 3 years exposure (1.00; 0.73-1.38). Findings were similar within sex and country, and for multiple sclerosis-related death. Beta interferon treatment was associated with a lower mortality risk among people with relapsing-onset multiple sclerosis. Findings were consistent between two geographically distinct regions in North America and Europe.

Spatial distribution of multiple sclerosis lesions in the cervical spinal cord.

Spinal cord lesions detected on MRI hold important diagnostic and prognostic value for multiple sclerosis. Previous attempts to correlate lesion burden with clinical status have had limited success, however, suggesting that lesion location may be a contributor. Our aim was to explore the spatial distribution of multiple sclerosis lesions in the cervical spinal cord, with respect to clinical status. We included 642 suspected or confirmed multiple sclerosis patients (31 clinically isolated syndrome, and 416 relapsing-remitting, 84 secondary progressive, and 73 primary progressive multiple sclerosis) from 13 clinical sites. Cervical spine lesions were manually delineated on T2- and T2*-weighted axial and sagittal MRI scans acquired at 3 or 7 T. With an automatic publicly-available analysis pipeline we produced voxelwise lesion frequency maps to identify predilection sites in various patient groups characterized by clinical subtype, Expanded Disability Status Scale score and disease duration. We also measured absolute and normalized lesion volumes in several regions of interest using an atlas-based approach, and evaluated differences within and between groups. The lateral funiculi were more frequently affected by lesions in progressive subtypes than in relapsing in voxelwise analysis (P < 0.001), which was further confirmed by absolute and normalized lesion volumes (P < 0.01). The central cord area was more often affected by lesions in primary progressive than relapse-remitting patients (P < 0.001). Between white and grey matter, the absolute lesion volume in the white matter was greater than in the grey matter in all phenotypes (P < 0.001); however when normalizing by each region, normalized lesion volumes were comparable between white and grey matter in primary progressive patients. Lesions appearing in the lateral funiculi and central cord area were significantly correlated with Expanded Disability Status Scale score (P < 0.001). High lesion frequencies were observed in patients with a more aggressive disease course, rather than long disease duration. Lesions located in the lateral funiculi and central cord area of the cervical spine may influence clinical status in multiple sclerosis. This work shows the added value of cervical spine lesions, and provides an avenue for evaluating the distribution of spinal cord lesions in various patient groups.

Long-term effect of first-line injectable multiple sclerosis treatments: Input of a time-dependent propensity score.

PURPOSE: The long-term effect of beta-interferon and glatiramer acetate on multiple sclerosis (MS) disability progression has resulted in controversial results, probably due to a lack of appropriate control of biases as raised in observational studies. In particular, the time of the therapeutic decision is difficult to define when the controls are not treated. METHODS: This retrospective observational study was based on a series of patients from the MS expert center in Rennes, France. We used a time-dependent propensity score defined as the linear predictor of a Cox model estimating the hazard of being treated at each time from MS onset. The matching procedure resulted in two groups: patients matched as treated and as not yet treated. The restricted mean times (RMST) to reach a moderate level of disability or worsening of the disability were compared between the two groups in an intention-to-treat analysis. RESULTS: Of the 2383 patients included in the study, 556 were matched as treated. The matching procedure provided a good balance of both the time-fixed and the time-dependent covariates. A slight difference was observed for the time to reach a moderate level of disability, in favor of the "not yet treated" group (difference in the RMST: -0.62 [-0.91; -0.33]) while no difference was found in terms of worsening of the disability (-0.03 [-0.24; 0.33]). CONCLUSION: This unexpected result is probably due to unmeasured confounders. However, this time-dependent PS warrants consideration in long-term effectiveness studies.

Automatic segmentation of the spinal cord and intramedullary multiple sclerosis lesions with convolutional neural networks.

The spinal cord is frequently affected by atrophy and/or lesions in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients. Segmentation of the spinal cord and lesions from MRI data provides measures of damage, which are key criteria for the diagnosis, prognosis, and longitudinal monitoring in MS. Automating this operation eliminates inter-rater variability and increases the efficiency of large-throughput analysis pipelines. Robust and reliable segmentation across multi-site spinal cord data is challenging because of the large variability related to acquisition parameters and image artifacts. In particular, a precise delineation of lesions is hindered by a broad heterogeneity of lesion contrast, size, location, and shape. The goal of this study was to develop a fully-automatic framework - robust to variability in both image parameters and clinical condition - for segmentation of the spinal cord and intramedullary MS lesions from conventional MRI data of MS and non-MS cases. Scans of 1042 subjects (459 healthy controls, 471 MS patients, and 112 with other spinal pathologies) were included in this multi-site study (n = 30). Data spanned three contrasts (T1-, T2-, and T2∗-weighted) for a total of 1943 vol and featured large heterogeneity in terms of resolution, orientation, coverage, and clinical conditions. The proposed cord and lesion automatic segmentation approach is based on a sequence of two Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs). To deal with the very small proportion of spinal cord and/or lesion voxels compared to the rest of the volume, a first CNN with 2D dilated convolutions detects the spinal cord centerline, followed by a second CNN with 3D convolutions that segments the spinal cord and/or lesions. CNNs were trained independently with the Dice loss. When compared against manual segmentation, our CNN-based approach showed a median Dice of 95% vs. 88% for PropSeg (p ≤ 0.05), a state-of-the-art spinal cord segmentation method. Regarding lesion segmentation on MS data, our framework provided a Dice of 60%, a relative volume difference of -15%, and a lesion-wise detection sensitivity and precision of 83% and 77%, respectively. In this study, we introduce a robust method to segment the spinal cord and intramedullary MS lesions on a variety of MRI contrasts. The proposed framework is open-source and readily available in the Spinal Cord Toolbox.

Acute Neurologic Disorder from an Inhibitor of Fatty Acid Amide Hydrolase.

BACKGROUND: A decrease in fatty acid amide hydrolase (FAAH) activity increases the levels of endogenous analogues of cannabinoids, or endocannabinoids. FAAH inhibitors have shown analgesic and antiinflammatory activity in animal models, and some have been tested in phase 1 and 2 studies. In a phase 1 study, BIA 10-2474, an orally administered reversible FAAH inhibitor, was given to healthy volunteers to assess safety. METHODS: Single doses (0.25 to 100 mg) and repeated oral doses (2.5 to 20 mg for 10 days) of BIA 10-2474 had been administered to 84 healthy volunteers in sequential cohorts; no severe adverse events had been reported. Another cohort of participants was then assigned to placebo (2 participants) or 50 mg of BIA 10-2474 per day (6 participants). This report focuses on neurologic adverse events in participants in this final cohort. A total of 4 of the 6 participants who received active treatment consented to have their clinical and radiologic data included in this report. RESULTS: An acute and rapidly progressive neurologic syndrome developed in three of the four participants starting on the fifth day of drug administration. The main clinical features were headache, a cerebellar syndrome, memory impairment, and altered consciousness. Magnetic resonance imaging showed bilateral and symmetric cerebral lesions, including microhemorrhages and hyperintensities on fluid-attenuated inversion recovery and diffusion-weighted imaging sequences predominantly involving the pons and hippocampi. One patient became brain dead; the condition of two patients subsequently improved, but one patient had residual memory impairment, and the other patient had a residual cerebellar syndrome. One patient remained asymptomatic. CONCLUSIONS: An unanticipated severe neurologic disorder occurred after ingestion of BIA 10-2474 at the highest dose level used in a phase 1 trial. The underlying mechanism of this toxic cerebral syndrome remains unknown.