The ABN meeting took place this year in Harrogate, North Yorkshire and was well attended by neurologists and pharma colleagues alike. The Town is very familiar to MD (aka. Prof David Baker) who has come through it all without any visible misgivings. The meeting was packed with a lot of discussions on current and upcoming MS clinical trials, service provision in the UK and treatment guidelines on...
In the report below there is a view of what we have learnt about COVID-19 and MS. I guess anyone could have written this as you have probably heard about all this stuff and more. But here is a summary. Two years of COVID-19 in the MS community: What have we learnt so far? Zabalza A, Thompson AJ, Montalban X.Mult Scler. 2022 :13524585221099844. doi: 10.1177/13524585221099844. Two years have...
The ABN meeting took place this year in Harrogate, North Yorkshire and was well attended by neurologists and pharma colleagues alike. The Town is very familiar to MD (aka. Prof David Baker) who has come through it all without any visible misgivings. The meeting was packed with a lot of discussions on current and upcoming MS clinical trials, service provision in the UK and treatment guidelines on...
ProgG is giving a rallying call, let’s hope he is correct and that people buy into the idea. However it is clear that this is no quick fix and to think that you get it right first time, is also a concern, because if you get it wrong is there the chance for another go. For example Epstein Barr Virus (EBV) RNA vaccines have been made and they are only designed to prevent infection, but are...
Association of Brain Atrophy With Disease Progression Independent of Relapse Activity in Patients With Relapsing Multiple Sclerosis Alessandro Cagol, MD1,2; Sabine Schaedelin, MSc3; Muhamed Barakovic, PhD1,2; et al JAMA Neurol. 2022. doi:10.1001/jamaneurol.2022.1025 Key Points Question Is disability progression independent of relapse...
I have copied this from the National Multiple sclerosis website “Historically, MS was believed to primarily affect white people, particularly those of European descent. Recent research, however, indicates a higher incidence (the number of people newly diagnosed with MS within a given period of time) of MS in Black people than previously thought , consistent with the rate of MS in white...
One of the often unadressed consequences of an MS diagnosis is that you need to gain a new and unwanted expertise: you need to debug the services of your health care provider. Irrespective of whether you suffer from MS-related fatigue, walking difficulties or reduced vision, you will need referrals for rehabilitation services such as occupational, physical or vocational therapy or for adjusting...
This paper is hard core science and too methodological for you to bother reading but, I report it to show how complex the B cells are. We usually define B memory cells by a marker called CD27. If B cells express CD20+/CD19+ and CD27. They are called memory B cells. In this paper they look at the expression of a number of markers and they see a lot of diversity. They define classical memory B...
Sepsis (or blood infection) is a dangerous thing. I remember first realising this as a Junior doctor in respiratory medicine, when an audit of pneumonia admissions revealed a mortality of 60%. Sadly, this has not improved by much even with the latest antibiotics. As I rotated through, transplant medicine, haem-oncology, and finally into ICU, I found myself forever pre-occupied with watching the...
If you’re a pwMS in the UK, make sure you have all questions to your neurologist answered by Tuesday since chances are, they will spend Wednesday – Friday in Harrogate meeting colleagues and friends at the annual meeting of the “ABN“. And given, you know, this is another one of those “first” F2F meetings since COVID-19 has – at least for now –...
By Dr Saloua Mrabet, Tunis, currently Fellow with BartsMS “Doctor!! Am I having a relapse? Do I need a new MRI? Do I need steroids?” These are some basic questions when your patient with Multiple Sclerosis (PwMS) calls you very anxious after a typical migraine attack. And even more perplexed when you answer “No!! it’s not a relapse”. She adds “But Doctor!! I am really struggling, I’m unable...