Journal of neurology, neurosurgery, and psychiatry
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J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatr. · Jan 2015
HIV and lower risk of multiple sclerosis: beginning to unravel a mystery using a record-linked database study.
Even though multiple sclerosis (MS) and HIV infection are well-documented conditions in clinical medicine, there is only a single case report of a patient with MS and HIV treated with HIV antiretroviral therapies. In this report, the patient's MS symptoms resolved completely after starting combination antiretroviral therapy and remain subsided for more than 12 years. Authors hypothesised that because the pathogenesis of MS has been linked to human endogenous retroviruses, antiretroviral therapy for HIV may be coincidentally treating or preventing progression of MS. This led researchers from Denmark to conduct an epidemiological study on the incidence of MS in a newly diagnosed HIV population (5018 HIV cases compared with 50,149 controls followed for 31,875 and 393,871 person-years, respectively). The incidence rate ratio for an HIV patient acquiring MS was low at 0.3 (95% CI 0.04 to 2.20) but did not reach statistical significance possibly due to the relatively small numbers in both groups. Our study was designed to further investigate the possible association between HIV and MS. ⋯ HIV infection is associated with a significantly decreased risk of developing MS. Mechanisms of this observed possibly protective association may include immunosuppression induced by chronic HIV infection and antiretroviral medications.
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J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatr. · Jan 2015
Modelling the natural history of primary progressive multiple sclerosis.
A minority of patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) have primary progressive disease (PPMS). Treatment options are currently limited, but as prospects for interventional studies become more realistic, understanding contemporary outcome data will be key to successful trial design. ⋯ Disability progression in PPMS is variable and influenced by age at onset. Although progression is more rapid, age-related disability milestones are identical to relapsing-onset disease. These data offer a contemporary paradigm for clinical trial design in progressive MS.