Cervical Cord Atrophy Predicts Silent MS Progression
Spinal cord atrophy predicted disease progression in people with relapsing multiple sclerosis (MS), a single-center observational study showed. A 1% faster cervical cord atrophy rate was associated with 69% (P<0.0001) shorter time to silent clinical progression and a 53% (P<0.0001) shorter time to secondary progressive MS (SPMS) conversion, reported Antje Bischof, MD, of University Hospital […]
COVID Vax Response Still Impaired in Some MS Patients After Third Shot
Immune response was attenuated after a third COVID-19 vaccine dose for multiple sclerosis (MS) patients taking certain disease-modifying treatments, interim data from a longitudinal study showed. Two weeks after a third shot, many MS patients on anti-CD20 drugs and sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P) receptor modulators still had significantly reduced total spike and receptor-binding domain (RBD) antibody responses, […]
Concurrent heatwaves seven times more frequent than in 1980s
Multiple large heatwaves the size of Mongolia occurred at the same time nearly every day during the warm seasons of the 2010s across the Northern Hemisphere, according to a study led by Washington State University researchers. Using climate data from 1979 to 2019, the researchers found that the number of heatwaves occurring simultaneously in the […]
Blood-Based Biomarkers Prove Mettle in Liver Disease Diagnosis
Multiple noninvasive blood biomarkers for metabolic liver disease met accuracy assessments for diagnosing metabolic liver disease in the first step of an advanced qualification system to better utilize these noninvasive tools, a researcher said. Top-line analyses of the Non-Invasive Biomarkers of Metabolic Liver Disease (NIMBLE) Stage 1 initiative found high sensitivity and specificity for the […]
Worse COVID-19 Outcomes for Disabled MS Patients
Multiple sclerosis (MS) patients who were disabled were more likely to be hospitalized, end up in the intensive care unit (ICU) or on a ventilator, or die if they developed COVID-19, North American registry data showed. Of non-ambulatory MS patients with COVID-19, 14.0% died, 8.3% were in the ICU or on a ventilator, and 24.6% […]