Friday

Initial Disability Scores and Progression Rather than Relapses Affect Duration of Interferon Beta 1-a (Avonex) Treatment: Presented at ECTRIMS

"Low scores on the Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) at the beginning of treatment with interferon beta-1a (Avonex) in multiple sclerosis patients is associated with a longer duration of treatment, according to research presented here on September 29th at the 21st Congress of the European Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis (ECTRIMS).....In addition, said the investigators, treatment failure is mostly due to progression of disability rather than persistence of a high relapse rate....."We found that the discontinuation of treatment is more frequent in patients with baseline higher EDSS scores but there is no significant difference in terms of disability progression with subjects with low baseline EDSS and subjects with high EDSS." MORE