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Multiple Sclerosis For more information please contact Peter Davis on 9342 8447 or email peter.davis@mh.org.au |
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| Ausimmune A prospective Australian multi-centre study of environmental factors in first demyelinating event: a case control study. We have recruited over 300 patients to this study and have established that there is a strong latitudinal gradient of incidence and we are now interrogating the environmental factors that drive susceptibility at both the individual and community level. Vitamin D in Multiple Sclerosis A prospective randomised double-blind study assessing the efficacy of high dose Vitamin D in limiting disease activity as assessed primarily by MRI in MS. Gene expression profiling in first demyelinating events. A prospective analysis of the genes expressed by CD3 positive lymphocytes of patients both during their first demyelinating event and after recovery compared to the profile exhibited by cohorts. ANZGene A multicentre study of 2,000 patients designed to assess the genetic determinants of clinical course, concentrating on patients with primary progressive and overt relapsing-remitting disease. |
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| The role of MRI in predicting visual dysfunction in chronic optic neuritis There is a compelling need to develop new therapies for multiple sclerosis that either protect the nervous system from immune damage or which assist in its regeneration. This requires not only candidate treatments but also robust mechanisms by which to test them in clinical trials, mechanisms that unfortunately are not, as yet, available. We have posited that detailed study of optic neuritis, one of the common presenting features of multiple sclerosis, might address this need. To establish whether this is the case, we have analysed the relationship between changes on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), in particular those defined by diffusion weighted imaging and assessments of optic nerve volume, with changes in visual function, as assessed by multifocal visual evoked potentials (mfVEPs) after optic neuritis. We found that there were significant abnormalities in MRI and mfVEP measures in nerves affected by past optic neuritis in comparison with controls. In particular, variance in mfVEP amplitude asymmetry was explained by a linear model combining fractional anisotropy as a diffusion-based measure and nerve volume asymmetry measures (R=0.80). These results suggest that MRI is likely to provide useful outcome measures in studies assessing the efficacy of neuroprotective therapy in MS and other neurodegenerative diseases designed to maintain axonal integrity. MS Base An international, online registry and platform for collaborative outcomes research on multiple sclerosis. Since 2004, the Royal Melbourne Hospital Neuroscience Unit has played a major leadership role in the development and implementation of MSBase (www.msbase.org), the only international web-based MS outcomes database. MSBase collects anonymised physician-generated key outcomes data from MS patients worldwide, and currently contains more than 7350 patient datasets from 57 MS centres in 21 countries. In 2007, the number of patient records almost doubled, and growth has remained linear for the first three months of 2008. Data quality remains exceptional, with updates received an average every 5 months, and 90% of records updated at least annually. The MSBase scientific leadership group conducts central, whole dataset outcomes analyses but also allows physicians in individual centres to collaborate with each other in a "substudy" functionality, which is now hosting six ongoing physician-initiated multi-centre epidemiological outcomes studies. MS Base has initiated a ‘seen from onset” cohort study, which has now recruited over 1250 patients from 27 centres and is the largest study of its kind in the world. |
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