Low Serum Vitamin D Levels and Recurrent Inflammatory Spinal Cord Disease Maureen A.
Vitamin D was significantly lower in people with recurrent transverse myelitis, neuromyelitis optica, and related inflammatory spinal diseases, researchers found. On the other hand, there appears to be no link between the vitamin and idiopathic transverse myelitis, which does not recur, according to Michael Levy, MD, PhD, of Johns Hopkins University, and colleagues. The finding, from a retrospective analysis, is reminiscent of what has been seen in multiple sclerosis and other recurrent autoimmune illnesses, and may provide clues to the role vitamin D plays in immune regulation, Levy and colleagues argued online in Archives of Neurology .
Multiple sclerosis: clinical aspects Sunday, May 29, 2011, 12:00 – 13:00 Neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder: the importance of NMO-IgG in clinical practice M. Radaelli, V
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
Neuromyelitis optica has not been thoroughly studied in Brazilian patients following the discovery of NMOIgG and its specific antigen aquaporin-4.
BACKGROUND: Antibodies to aquaporin-4 (AQP4) are found in a fraction of Japanese opticospinal multiple sclerosis (OSMS) patients. However, it remains unknown whether anti-AQP4 antibody-positive and negative OSMS patients possess an identical disease
The detection of antibodies against aquaporin-4 (AQP4) has improved the diagnosis of neuromyelitis optica (NMO). We evaluated a recently established cell-based anti-AQP4 assay in 273 patients with inflammatory CNS demyelination. The assay had a specificity of 99% and a sensitivity of 56% to detect all NMO patients and of 74% to detect the recurrent NMO patients, similar to the initial studies reported.
Introduction: idiopathic acute transverse myelitis (ATM) is clinically characterized by partial or complete spinal cord syndromes, variable remission rate and a monophasic or recurrent clinical course. Partial forms are traditionally associated with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) while complete myelitis to neuromyelitis optica (NMO). The discovery of an antibody called anti-AQP4 was an important tool to differentiate these two conditions.
Objective: To describe the clinical characteristics, course, and prognosis of optic neuritis in recurrent neuromyelitis optica.
Although human T-lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV-1)-associated myelopathy, or tropical spastic paraparesis (HAM/TSP), is usually considered as a progressive myelopathy, a subacute variant has been described. It is unusual for optic neuritis (ON) to be associated with an HTLV-1 infection