The International Panel on MS Diagnosis presents revised diagnostic criteria for multiple sclerosis (MS). The focus remains on the objective demonstration of dissemination of lesions in both time and space. Magnetic resonance imaging is integrated with clinical and other paraclinical diagnostic methods. The revised criteria facilitate the diagnosis of MS in patients with a variety of presentations, including "monosymptomatic" disease suggestive of MS, disease with a typical relapsingremitting course, and disease with insidious progression, without clear attacks and remissions. Previously used terms such as "clinically definite" and "probable MS" are no longer recommended. The outcome of a diagnostic evaluation is either MS, "possible MS" (for those at risk for MS, but for whom diagnostic evaluation is equivocal), or "not MS."

Overview. Clinical types of MS.MS is a chronic recurrent inflammatory disorder of the CNS. The disease results in injury to the myelin sheaths, the oligodendrocytes, and, to a lesser extent, the axons and nerve cells themselves. [1][2][3][4][5] The symptoms of MS vary, depending in part on the location of plaques within the CNS. Common symptoms include sensory disturbances in the limbs, optic nerve dysfunction, pyramidal tract dysfunction, bladder or bowel dysfunction, sexual dysfunction, ataxia, and diplopia. 5Four different clinical courses of MS have been defined. 6 The first, relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS), is characterized by self-limited attacks of neurologic dysfunction. These attacks develop acutely, evolving over days to weeks. Over the next several weeks to months, most patients experience a recovery of function that is often (but not always) complete. Between attacks the patient is neurologically and symptomatically stable. The second clinical course, secondary progressive MS (SPMS), begins as RRMS, but at some point the attack rate is reduced and the course becomes characterized by a steady deterioration in function unrelated to acute attacks. The third clinical type, primary progressive MS (PPMS), is characterized by a steady decline in function from the beginning without acute attacks. The fourth type, progressive-relapsing MS (PRMS), also begins with a progressive course although these patients also experience occasional attacks. Outcome measures in MS clinical trials.Evaluation of the relative effectiveness of different therapies requires consideration of which outcome measure or measures are relevant to the goals of therapy. Clearly, the most important therapeutic aim of any disease-modifying treatment of MS is to prevent or postpone long-term disability. However, long-term disability in MS often evolves slowly over many years.1-3 Clinical trials, by contrast, study patients for only short periods of time (2 or 3 years) and, therefore, use only short-term outcome measures to assess efficacy. As a result, it is important to validate any short-term measure by its correlation with the actual patient outcome many years later. For a discussion of these issues, interested readers should consult the full-length assessment on the Neurology Web site at www.neurology.org.Scope of this guideline. The purpose of this assessment is to consider the clinical utility of these disease-modifying agents including the anti-inflammatory, immunomodulatory, and immunosuppressive treatments that are currently available.

Objective: To determine whether glatiramer acetate (GA) slows accumulation of disability in primary progressive multiple sclerosis. Methods: A total of 943 patients with primary progressive multiple sclerosis were randomized to GA or placebo (PBO) in this 3-year, double-blind trial. The primary end point was an intention-to-treat analysis of time to 1-(entry expanded disability status scale, 3.0 -5.0) or 0.5-point expanded disability status scale change (entry expanded disability status scale, 5.5-6.5) sustained for 3 months. The trial was stopped after an interim analysis by an independent data safety monitoring board indicated no discernible treatment effect on the primary outcome. Intention-to-treat analyses of disability and magnetic resonance imaging end points were performed. Results: There was a nonsignificant delay in time to sustained accumulated disability in GA-versus PBO-treated patients (hazard ratio, 0.87 [95% confidence interval, 0.71-1.07]; p ϭ 0.1753), with significant decreases in enhancing lesions in year 1 and smaller increases in T2 lesion volumes in years 2 and 3 versus PBO. Post hoc analysis showed that survival curves for GA-treated male patients diverged early from PBO-treated male subjects (hazard ratio, 0.71 [95% confidence interval, 0.53-0.95]; p ϭ 0.0193). Interpretation:The trial failed to demonstrate a treatment effect of GA on primary progressive multiple sclerosis. Both the unanticipated low event rate and premature discontinuation of study medication decreased the power to detect a treatment effect. Post hoc analysis suggests GA may have slowed clinical progression in male patients who showed more rapid progression when untreated.

In a randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind study, glatiramer acetate (Copaxone) reduced the relapse rate and slowed accumulation of disability for patients with relapsing - remitting multiple sclerosis. Of the original 251 patients randomized to receive glatiramer acetate or placebo, 208 chose to continue in an open-label study with all patients receiving active drug. The majority of the original double-blind cohort continues to receive glatiramer acetate by daily subcutaneous injection and are evaluated at 6-month intervals and during suspected relapse. The data reported here are from approximately 6 years of organized evaluation, including the double-blind phase of up to 35 months and the open-label phase of over 36 months. Daily subcutaneous injections of 20 mg glatiramer acetate were well tolerated. The mean annual relapse rate of the patients who received glatiramer acetate since randomization and continued into the open-label study was 0.42 (95% confidence interval (CI), CI=0.34 - 0.51). The rate per year has continued to drop and for the sixth year is 0.23. Of the group who have received glatiramer acetate without interruption for 5 or more years, 69.3% were neurologically unchanged or have improved from baseline by at least one step on the Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS). Patients who left the open-label phase were surveyed by questionnaire. The majority responded, providing information about their current status and reasons for dropping out. This study demonstrates the sustained efficacy of glatiramer acetate in reducing the relapse rate and in slowing the accumulation of disability in patients with relapsing forms of multiple sclerosis. Multiple Sclerosis (2000) 6 255 - 266

SUMMARY:The development of somatically mutated memory and plasma B cells is a consequence of T cell-dependent antigen-challenged humoral immunity. To investigate the role of B cell-mediated humoral immunity in the initiation and evolution of multiple sclerosis (MS), we analyzed Ig variable heavy chain genes of intrathecal B cells derived from patients with a first clinical manifestation suggestive of MS. Sequences of Ig variable regions showed that B cells in the cerebrospinal fluid from most of these patients were clonally expanded and carried somatic hypermutated variable heavy chain genes. The mutations showed a high replacement-to-silent ratio and were distributed in a way suggesting that these clonally expanded B cells had been positively selected through their antigen receptor. In comparison, intrathecal B-cell clonal expansion often precedes both oligoclonal IgG bands and multiple magnetic resonance imaging lesions. Clinical follow-up study showed that patients with clonally expanded intrathecal B cells had a high rate of conversion to clinically definite MS. The findings provide direct evidence of recruitment of germinal center differentiated B lymphocytes into the central nervous system during the initiation of MS. These results indicate B cell-mediated immune response in the cerebrospinal fluid is an early event of inflammatory reaction in the central nervous system of MS. This procedure also provides a more sensitive method to evaluate the association of humoral immunity in the evolution of MS. (Lab Invest 2003, 83:1081-1088. M ultiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic (auto)immune inflammatory disease that causes disability due to immune-mediated damage of myelin sheath and axons (Adams, 1983;Smith et al, 1993). Within demyelinating lesions, there is an accumulation of lymphoid and myeloid cells, including T and B lymphocytes, monocytes, and macrophages (Compston et al, 1989;Hafler et al, 1985;Wucherpfennig et al, 1997). The infiltration of B cells and deposition of antibodycomplement complexes indicate that humoral immunity facilitates inflammation and accelerates damage to myelin sheaths and axons Genain et al, 1999;Lucchinetti et al, 2000).Several recent studies indicate that permanent tissue damage occurs early in the course of MS (Ganter et al, 1999;Trapp et al, 1998). In most cases of MS, the first clinical manifestation is clinically isolated syndromes (CIS) involving optic neuritis, transverse myelitis, or a brain stem/spinal cord syndrome. The role of an antigen-driven immune response in the initiation and the development of MS at this stage is still unclear. Based on experiments in rodents and humans, somatic hypermutation of B-cell Ig variable region genes occurs during B-cell differentiation which, when coupled to T cell-dependent antigen selection in germinal centers (GCs), results in affinity maturation, immune memory, and B-cell clonal selection (Archelos et al, 2000;Baranzini et al, 1999;Colombo et al, 2000;Correale and de Los Milagros Bassani Molinas, 2002;Cross, 2000;Owens et al, 1998;Qin...