Both MMF and AZA were effective in patients with NMO/NMOSD. Fewer and more mild adverse events were attributed to MMF than AZA. The probability of maintaining a relapse-free state was not significantly different between the MMF and AZA groups. However, more effective treatments with more acceptable safety profiles are still needed.

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In this study, we tried to describe the characteristics of pain and explore the association between the incidence of pain and abnormal laboratory test results in patients during the acute phase of Guillain–Barré syndrome (GBS).This retrospective cohort study enrolled 252 patients with GBS who were in the acute phase of the disease. We collected data regarding the location and type of pain, the onset time, clinical variables and laboratory tests, including the levels of uric acid (UA), albumin, cerebrospinal fluid protein (CSFP), cerebrospinal fluid glucose (CSFG), fasting glucose upon admission, and blood creatinine. The pain descriptors were compared to the severity of disease and laboratory examination results.Around 34.5% of the patients reported pain during the acute phase of GBS. Pain was negatively correlated with the disease severity during the acute phase. In total, 29 of the 87 (33.3%) patients reported pain during the 2 weeks preceding the onset of weakness. The concentration of CSFP was positively associated with the incidence of pain, while the concentrations of UA and albumin were not correlated with the incidence of pain.We found that 33.3% of the GBS patients experienced pain within 2 weeks of onset, and the pain was positively associated with CSFP concentration but was not correlated with disease severity.

STAT4 plays a crucial role in the functioning of the innate and adaptive immune cells and has been identified as a susceptibility gene in numerous autoimmune disorders. However, its association with neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorders (NMOSD) remains uncertain. Here, we performed a case-control study to determine whether STAT4 contributed to the risk of NMOSD. We tested five STAT4 SNPs in 233 patients with established NMOSD and 492 healthy controls. Chi-square tests and logistic regression analyses were performed with four genetic models, including allelic, additive, dominant, and recessive models, to identify associations with NMOSD. The results of multiple test comparisons were corrected using the Benjamini and Hochberg false discovery rate (FDR-BH). After correcting for multiple test comparisons, the minor alleles of four STAT4 SNPs exhibited significant association with increased risk of NMOSD (rs7574865 T, odds ratio [OR] = 1.66, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.32-2.08, P = 0.000; rs10181656 G, OR = 1.62, 95% CI 1.29-2.03, P = 0.000; rs10168266 T, OR = 1.59, 95% CI 1.27-2.00, P = 0.001; and rs13426947 A, OR = 1.51, 95% CI 1.21-1.90, P = 0.004). Identical results were observed in the dominant, recessive, and additive models. In contrast, the G allele of rs7601754 displayed a protective effect against NMOSD (OR = 0.53, 95% CI 0.36-0.76, P = 0.006). Our study indicates that STAT4 polymorphisms are associated with the risk of NMOSD, which provides novel insights into the underlying mechanisms of this disease.