Faculty Bibliography

BACKGROUND:The 2015 criteria for diagnosing neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder (NMOSD) have encouraged several groups across the world to report on their patients using these criteria. The disease typically manifests with severe relapses of optic neuritis, longitudinally extensive myelitis and/or brainstem syndromes, often leading to severe disability. Some patients are seropositive for antibodies against aquaporin-4 (AQP4), others are positive for anti-myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein (MOG), while a few are negative for both biomarkers. The disease is complex, and only now are specific therapeutic clinical trials being carried out. The present study adds to the literature through detailed clinical data from 153 medical records of Brazilian patients. METHODS:Retrospective assessment of medical records from nine specialized units in Brazil. RESULTS:NMOSD was more prevalent in females (4.1:1), who had significantly fewer relapses than males (p = 0.007) but presented similar levels of disability over time. African ancestry was associated with higher levels of disability throughout the disease course (p < 0.001), although the number of relapses was similar to that observed in white patients. Concomitant autoimmune diseases were relatively rare in this population (6.5%). Positivity for anti-AQP4 antibodies was identified in 62% of the patients tested, while 3% presented anti-MOG antibodies. Anti-AQP4 antibodies were not associated to worse disease course. The last medical record showed that six patients had died and 13 were wheelchair-bound. Seventy percent of the patients did not respond to first-line therapy (azathioprine and/or corticosteroids), and five patients continued to relapse even after four different courses of treatment. CONCLUSION/CONCLUSIONS:The present study adds to the reports from other countries presenting original data on Brazilian patients diagnosed with NMOSD according to the 2015 criteria.

Background: SymptoMScreen is a new patient-reported outcome (PRO) tool for the rapid assessment of multiple sclerosis (MS) symptom severity in 12 domains (walking, hand function/dexterity, spasticity, bodily pain, sensory, bladder, fatigue, vision, dizziness, cognitive, depression and anxiety) on 7-point Likert scales (0 [not affected] to 6 [total limitation]). SymptoMScreen is used for the first time as an outcome measure in two ongoing, openlabel, single-arm Phase IIIb clinical trials of ocrelizumab (OCR) in treatment naive patients with early-stage relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS; ENSEMBLE [NCT03085810]) and patients with RRMS who had a prior suboptimal response to disease-modifying treatment (DMT; CASTING [NCT02861014]).
Objective(s): To report ENSEMBLE and CASTING baseline SymptoMScreen results.
Method(s): Patients in ENSEMBLE (Expanded Disability Status Scale [EDSS] score <=3.5 at screening) had a disease duration of <=3 years and >=1 clinically reported relapse or >=1 sign of MRI activity within 12 months of enrolment; patients in CASTING (EDSS <=4.0 at screening) had a disease duration <=10 years and discontinued a prior DMT of >=6 months' duration for reasons of suboptimal disease control. SymptoMScreen was performed in all study patients at baseline. OCR 600mg/24 weeks (first dose, 2x300mg, 14 days apart) was administered intravenously in both ENSEMBLE (192 weeks; maximum 8 doses) and CASTING (96 weeks; maximum 4 doses).
Result(s): ENSEMBLE patient (N=676) baseline characteristics were: female=65%, mean (SD) baseline EDSS score=1.7 (1.0), disease duration=1.1 (0.9) years; and in CASTING (N=681): female=64%, baseline EDSS score=2.1 (1.1), disease duration= 5.0 (2.7) years. In CASTING, 61% of patients had received one DMT prior to enrolment (most frequently dimethyl fumarate [25%]). Total mean (SD) baseline SymptoMScreen scores were 12.2 (10.9) in ENSEMBLE and 15.3 (12.6) in CASTING; individual domain scores ranged from 0.8 (1.1) to 1.8 (1.5) and 1.0 (1.2) to 2.1 (1.6), respectively, with numerically higher scores in ENSEMBLE (all domains) and fatigue having the highest score in both studies. Moderate to severe fatigue (domain score >=3) was reported in 31% (ENSEMBLE) to 41% (CASTING) of patients.
Conclusion(s): SymptoMScreen scores were generally low, though expectedly higher in CASTING than ENSEMBLE, consistent with greater disability in the patients who experienced suboptimal control; differences were consistent in all domains, but were most pronounced in fatigue and ambulation