April 27, 2022 – by Marisa Wexler MS
Children with multiple sclerosis (MS) who in their first year after disease onset experience pyramidal symptoms, such as spasticity or weakness, visual problems, or show signs of cerebellum involvement like poorer coordination are more likely to have worse long-term disability, an analysis of registry data indicates.
The analysis also suggests that an older age at childhood onset and more severe disability in that first year associate with greater long-term disability worsening in pediatric MS.
These findings, its researchers said, could help doctors in making timely decisions when treating these children.
Sifat Sharmin, PhD, a biostatistician with the University of Melbourne, presented the findings at the virtual American Academy of Neurology (AAN) 2022 meeting in April. Her talk was titled “Early Predictors of Disability in Paediatric Multiple Sclerosis: Evidence from a Multi-National Registry.”
About 3% to 10% of MS patients develop the disease during childhood or adolescence. Pediatric MS tends to differ in some ways from adult-onset disease; for example, children tend to have more relapses and disease activity on MRI scans in the first few years after onset.
Disability also tends to progress more slowly in children. But since the disease is starting at an earlier age, it is common for people with pediatric MS to have marked disease-related disabilities by the time they reach their 30s.
A growing body of evidence suggests that early treatment with disease-modifying therapies (DMTs) may slow long-term disability progression in these patients.
“Early recognition of predictors of faster disability worsening in children is crucial for the clinicians to make treatment decisions at the earliest possible time,” Sharmin said. “In this study, we aim to identify predictors of disability as early as [the] first year from symptom onset.”
The study included 672 children with pediatric MS across 30 countries. Their data was included in the international MSBase Registry, a collaboration dedicated to better understanding MS and other neurological diseases.
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