Multiple sclerosis: treatment Tuesday, May 31, 2011, 11:30 – 12:30 Safety and efficacy of rituximab in neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder M. Radaelli, L. Moiola, D
OBJECTIVE:To evaluate the efficacy, tolerability, optimal dosing, and monitoring of azathioprine in patients with neuromyelitis optica (NMO). METHODS: This was a chart review and telephone follow-up study of 99 patients with NMO spectrum of disorders (NMOSD) treated with azathioprine (1994-2009). NMOSD were NMO (2006 diagnostic criteria) or partial NMO forms (NMO-immunoglobulin G seropositive)
Background: Recurrent myelitis (rM) represents a pathogenetically heterogeneous group of inflammatory diseases with a selective involvement of the spinal cord. The recent description of NMO Ig-G antibody, the specific biomarker for Neuromyelites Optica (NMO), also in patients with recurrent myelitis with longitudinally extensive transverse spinal cord lesions (LETM), has brought to consider this disease an incomplete form of NMO (NMO Spectrum of Disorders). Methods: we retrospectively selected patients (pts) with rM attended our neurological department between January 2000 and March 2010
Background: Using an anti-aquaporin-4 (AQP4) antibody assay discovered in 2005, Japanese patients with neuromyelitis optica (NMO) can easily be differentially diagnosed from those with opticospinal multiple sclerosis (MS).