Things neurologists don’t expect to hear during a consultation, example #327: “I’ve made a comic book about having MS, and you appear as a character on the first page! Can I send you a copy?” But that is exactly what I said to Prof K last time we met. And here is that first page: I know he doesn’t really look anything like that. I don’t have an enormous Mohican either. And more importantly, I...
Since being hit by a motorbike travelling at high speed and nearly losing my life or independence I now have personal experience of the value of physical neurorehabilitation. When I say #UseItOrLoseIt I really mean it. So if you have more advanced MS and are using a walking stick (EDSS 6.0) we want you to enrol in a #CitizenScience type study in which we are testing a new hand and arm activity...
Starting certain MS drugs may get you stuck in a loop that you never bargained for when you started them in your early thirties or forties. The ability to stop taking drugs at an older age is something we more or less take for granted, especially if we have been disease free for ‘X’ many years. However, in the MS world things are never that simple or straightforward; there is...
In 1875, a famous German scientist; Wilhelm Gottfried Waldeyer Hertz, described an immune cell with a large cytoplasm (the space within the cell aside from the nucleus), he was the first to name it the “plasma cell”. We now know that this large cytoplasm hosts a production line that is solely dedicated to antibody formation (up to 10,000 molecules per second per cell). They account for less than...
Barts-MS rose-tinted-odometer: ★★ I am increasingly being asked about what is going to happen to MS research and clinical services post-COVID-19. The question is being asked as if I am some kind of futurist or prophet. I am not. My response is let’s focus on the here and now. The following on the issues that need to be addressed this year: Untreated or under-treated MS. There is has been a drop...
Barts-MS rose-tinted-odometer: ★★★ If you have been on ocrelizumab for two years would you be prepared to participate in the ADIOS (adaptive dosing ocrelizumab study)? One of the study arms would mean that you would not receive any ocrelizumab until you had a relapse or new MRI activity. In other words, we would be using ocrelizumab like we use alemtuzumab or cladribine, i.e. as an immune...
Here are some links to information about the Astrazeneca vaccine and small risk of blood clotting, which have just gone live. Hopefully these will help with your questions. Press release MHRA issues new advice, concluding a possible link between COVID-19 Vaccine AstraZeneca and extremely rare, unlikely to occur blood clots – GOV.UKThe benefits of vaccination continue to outweigh any risks...
You may remember that about 6 years ago the idea was germinated on this blog to launch an online version of ECTRIMS to reach people in low- and middle-income countries and to allow more women with family commitments to attend meetings. The other aim was to usher in the next generation of young MSologists; more women, younger people, more ethnic diversity and from all regions of over the world, i...
I write to apologise to anybody who was upset or offended by my recent post on AttackMS, which is in support of a trial of natalizumab in people who likely have MS at the time before their diagnosis. Foolishly, I contrasted this with a post on repeated monitoring of people over a thirty-year period, entitled “Same time next year”. This was inappropriate and insensitive and I apologise...
Once upon a time, there were cyclists as Fausto Coppi. He was the kind of guy that attacked 5 km after the start of the race (Milan San-Remo 1946), and then dropped the rest of the lead group with 14 minutes on the ‘Passo del Turchino’ or ‘who-wins-on-the-Turchino-wins-the-race’. He not only won the Tour de France twice, he did it with a ‘martian’ dominance. In 1949, there was a 14’ difference...
In this individual ocrelizumab was used for 2 years. The person was vaccinated about two weeks after last infusion and the second Pfizer dose 3 weeks later. Nearly 3 weeks later they tested positive for COVID-19, so had been infected. A few days later there showed an IgM response but no IgG response. But we are no wiser…were they going to seroconvert to make an IgG response? No time to find...