Purpose: To prospectively assess sensitivity and specificity of diffusion indexes of the corpus callosum (CC) for differentiating relapsing neuromyelitis optica (RNMO) from relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS), by using final clinical diagnosis as the reference standard. Materials and Methods: Participants provided informed consent; the study was approved by the institutional review board. Forty-six consecutive patients with RRMS (18 men, 28 women; mean age, 37.7 years; range, 18–58 years) and 26 consecutive patients with RNMO (two men, 24 women; mean age, 38.6 years; range, 19–59 years) underwent diffusion-tensor magnetic resonance imaging.
Background: Neuromyelitis Optica (NMO) serology is a powerful tool for differential diagnosis from Multiple Sclerosis (MS). This study aims to perform a post-marketing evaluation of the first indirect immunofluorescence assay (IIFA) commercially available for NMO serology
BACKGROUND: Neuromyelitis optica (NMO), a severe demyelinating disease, represents itself with optic neuritis and longitudinally extensive transverse myelitis. Serum NMO-IgG autoantibodies (Abs), a specific finding in NMO patients, target the water channel protein aquaporin-4 (AQP4), which is expressed as a long (M-1) or a short (M-23) isoform.
Background: A new autoantibody (termed NMO-IgG, or AQP4-Ab) has recently been described in patients with neuromyelitis optica (NMO) and its formes frustes, longitudinally extensive transverse myelitis (LETM) and recurrent optic neuritis (rON). However, AQP4-Ab has been found also in patients with co-existing rheumatic diseases such as systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) or Sjogren’s syndrome (SS), conditions which are characterized by broad, polyspecific B cell activation
Backgrounds: The distinction between neuromyelitis optica (NMO) and multiple sclerosis (MS) has long been a debate in Asia. The most specific finding for NMO is a longitudinally extensive, central cord lesion on MRI in the setting of myelitis (LETM), which is very rare in MS. The MRI criterion for LETM (contiguous spinal cord lesion 3 or more segments in length) is crucial.