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...
This saying was said (Paul Revere) when the British (soldiers wearing red) arriving in USA Israel got off to a flying start with their vaccination programme, and then the UK got out of the starting blocks quickly. We would know about the effect of MS drugs on COVID-19 if the second dose of vaccine was at 3-4weeks. However, in stepped the Joint vaccinations committee to throw away the purpose of...
No I am not talking about football. There is a lot of talk about whether smouldering lesions are something different, where their origins may be something other than immune attack. Whilst I have no problem with this, based on histology by the pathologists they accumulate over time. Smouldering lesions are lesions with microglial edge There are more smouldering lesions evident in progression Now...
Learning from other coniditons. Anti-CD20 increases COVID-19 risks Predictive factors for a severe course of COVID-19 infection in myasthenia gravis patients with an overall impact on myasthenic outcome status and survival. Eur J Neurol 2021 Myasthenia is a conditon associated with antibodies against the junction between the muscle and the peripheral nerves and this has been treated with...
Hello, I am Charalambos Hadjicharalambous, a medical student at Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry working with Dr Gnanapavan (aka NDG) and Prof Baker (aka Mouse Doctor). In my spare time during the COVID-19 pandemic, I have been helping the BartsMS team with their COVID-19 studies. I am writing here to discuss an article that we’ve written detailing a potential rare link...
Barts-MS rose-tinted-odometer: ★★ (Purple Haze Friday #7D7098; looking forward to the weekend) It is quite amazing how large and extensive the focal inflammatory lesion blindspot or scotoma is in the field of MS. I was on a call with a few American neurologists last week and they were saying how anti-CD20 therapy has transformed their MS practice. One neurologist claimed that 4 out of 5 of their...
The first data that was presented on COVID-19 vaccination in Israel has surfaced and says that people treated with fingolimod and ocrelizumab struggle to make a B cell response. On the left graph below the dotted line and you don,t make a good antibody response. So good news for the clad lads…. Humoral immune response to COVID-19 mRNA vaccine in patients...
This MS Blog has been around since 2009, started by Prof G. But he isn’t in charge of the blog, he is one of many contributors. As of May 2021, there were over 9,200 published posts. Each month, the website sees 50% new and 50% returning visitors, with over 88,000 page views a month. Most readers are from the UK, US, Canada and across Europe. In April, the blog went through...
Barts-MS rose-tinted-odometer: ★★★ (a blueish-green Thursday; looking forward to being a weekend warrior #0d98ba ) My heart sank when I saw the latest COVID-19 UK case numbers. Here we go again? I don’t think so simply because the vaccines are working as well as the protective immunity induced by wild-type SARS-CoV-2 infection. I just wish the Government would take a pragmatic approach to the...
Many avid readers of the blog will remember the guest post from Sita a few weeks ago. As part of her elective placement I asked her to look at some of the early data from people taking part in the COVID blood spot study, and she has written a blog post below talking about what she found. This is very timely, as in a BartsMS advisory group meeting this morning I was reminded of the importance of...
Alba Suárez EM, Tallón Barranco A, Puertas Muñoz I, Chamorro Hernández B, Robles Marhuenda Á. Non-late-onset neutropaenia following treatment of multiple sclerosis with ocrelizumab. Neurologia. 2021 13:S0213-4853(21)00026-8. Late-onset neutropaenia (loss of neutrophils which are our first line against infection) is defined as an absolute neutrophil count of <1.5×103cells/μL starting>4 weeks...