Prof G do you think disability improvement is a reasonable treatment goal? NEDADI = no evident disease activity and disability improvement Two weeks ago one of my patients with PPMS, who we treated with off-label subcutaneous cladribine, came for her annual follow-up appointment. Despite being treated with cladribine over 2 years ago she has unfortunately progressed from EDSS 5.5 to 6.5. Her...
Yes, why can’t we use anti-CD20 therapies as an immune constitution therapy (IRT) or at least adapt the dose based on B-cell reconstitution kinetics? And if we can’t beat the Swedes why can’t we join them? ADIOS = ADaptIve Ocrelizumab dosing Study There is mounting evidence from NMO and rheumatology that anti-CD20 therapies can be used as either a maintenance therapy or an immune...
What is the difference between relapsing and progressive MS. This new work from one of the number one science comics now tells us that it is due to immune cells responding to a grey matter protein called beta synuclein Nature | Published: 20 February 2019 β-Synuclein-reactive T cells induce autoimmune CNS grey matter degeneration Dmitri Lodygin et al. , The grey matter is a central target of...
Thank you to Prof. G, MouseDoctor and the Barts MS team for letting us reach out to you about the MS-STAT2 study! Are you interested in taking part? We would love to have you involved! Follow the link for more details and to register your interest: www.ms-stat2.info MS-STAT2 – What is it? The MS-STAT2 study is a 3 year clinical trial testing whether high dose simvastatin can slow down the rate of...
Prof G has the MS community go it wrong? In this week’s NEJM there is an insightful perspective by Louise Aronson on ageing and driving. Aronson. Don’t Ruin My Life — Aging and Driving in the 21st Century. N Engl J Med 2019; 380:705-707. Louise quotes the American poet Donald Hall, who explains in Essays After Eighty how life is irrevocably and excruciatingly changed when a person must let go of...
Prof G what can be done to manage my hyperthyroidism if I want to fall pregnant? Carbimazole is associated with an increased risk of congenital malformations, especially when administered in the first trimester of pregnancy and at high doses. Women of childbearing potential should use effective contraception during treatment with carbimazole. Carbimazole: increased risk of congenital...
As promised, I now provide you with a link that will provide you with full and free access to the paper for fifty days. You can download, read and come back to ask questions. Here is the link.
Enjoy.
COI Multiple This was not company sponsored
Why can’t we use anti-CD20 therapies as immune constitution therapies? For some years we have been promoting our Barts-MS Essential DMT list to treat people with MS (pwMS) in resource-poor environments. One of the big guns on our list has been rituximab (anti-CD20). One of the problems is that rituximab at a dose of 1g every 6 months is still too expensive to accessible for the vast...
Figure: To-and-fro bi-directionality of CSF flow in the brainBy © Nevit Dilmen, CC BY-SA 3.0 I get a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach when I read this article. Starting out in science, one is considered smart when following the trends of the populist. As a seasoned scientist, when one continues to work in this way, one is just not being too clever. I am not being disparaging of those who...
Do you take dietary supplements? If yes, are you prepared to review what you are taking and ask yourself if you need to spend the money taking something that is not supported by any evidence? In the US the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has recently announced measures to regulate dietary supplements. The FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said: “It’s clear that the US Food and Drug...
Did anyone watch ‘Skint Britain: friends without benefits’ on Channel 4 in the week? ‘Skint Britain: friends without benefits’ looks at the rollout and impact of the new Universal Credit scheme for British people who are unemployed or unable to work. The ‘big idea’ behind universal credit is to incentivise people who are unemployed to work or at least to be shown to be actively seeking work in...