Articles

SAN DIEGO -- New data on drugs recently introduced for multiple sclerosis tend to mirror their pivotal trial results, but these new generation drugs face competition from new wrinkles on old drugs, reports here indicated.

SILVER SPRING, Md. -- Dimethyl fumarate has won FDA approval to treat relapsing-remitting forms of multiple sclerosis and will be sold under the name Tecfidera, the agency said Wednesday.

SAN DIEGO -- A host of upcoming and recently approved multiple sclerosis drugs are on the horizon. Here's a look at four of them, plus a peek at an entirely novel treatment approach.

More than half of outpatient lumbar spine MRI scans weren't appropriate, with a particularly poor record of ordering by family physicians, researchers found.

SAN DIEGO -- A higher testosterone level was associated with less disability and better cognitive outcomes in patients with recent-onset relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis, researchers reported here.

SAN DIEGO -- Outcomes for multiple sclerosis patients were not measurably better with a controversial surgical procedure to improve blood flow in cerebrospinal veins, results of a small, controlled trial indicated.

SAN DIEGO - All multiple sclerosis patients taking natalizumab (Tysabri) who were diagnosed with a serious condition called PML before symptoms appeared were still alive a year later, researchers said.

SAN DIEGO - All multiple sclerosis patients taking natalizumab (Tysabri) who were diagnosed with a serious condition called PML before symptoms appeared were still alive a year later, researchers said.

SAN DIEGO -- Hormone pulse therapy may be effective at treating breakthrough multiple sclerosis (MS), with a more favorable profile for relapse and psychiatric side effects, researchers reported here.

SAN DIEGO -- Hormone pulse therapy may be effective at treating breakthrough multiple sclerosis (MS), with a more favorable profile for relapse and psychiatric side effects, researchers reported here.

Experiments in mice suggested that high salt in the diet accelerates nerve damage of the type seen in multiple sclerosis. Also this week: fish oil fights flu mortality.

Significant differences were seen in sophisticated MRI brain scans between multiple sclerosis (MS) patients with cognitive impairments and those without, apparently unrelated to classic MS lesions, researchers said.

Neurologic syndrome relapses following brain infection were tied more to lesions of the peripheral nervous system than to central nervous system lesions, researchers found.

Recent discoveries in the laboratory have provided strong clues to the reasons why multiple sclerosis now afflicts mainly women, two prominent MS researchers said.

Off-label treatment with natalizumab (Tysabri) for 20 children with severe multiple sclerosis reduced relapses and brain lesions seen on MRI scans, a retrospective analysis found.

Google's Flu Trends surveillance system did not do so well in tracking this season's influenza numbers. Also this week: a multiple sclerosis drug will be tested in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

SILVER SPRING, Md. -- An FDA advisory committee recommended approval for a novel gadolinium-based MRI contrast agent in adults and children older than 2, but not for younger children.

A gadolinium-based MRI contrast agent's proposed use in children younger than 2 appears to have very little data to support it, FDA staff reviewers said in briefing materials for a Thursday advisory committee meeting.

A reaction to anti-natalizumab (Tysabri) antibodies appears to have killed a Swedish woman with multiple sclerosis who received the drug, researchers said.

Spinal cord lesions imaged with quantitative MRI-based technologies correlated better with clinical disability of multiple sclerosis patients than did simple lesion counts based on conventional MRI.