ArticleBrain communications2025
Persistent progression independent of relapse activity in multiple sclerosis.
Article in Brain communications, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed.
- Bayes at the Bedside: Biomarkers in Situations of Clinical Uncertainty.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Integrating Genetics and Environment to Find Causal Mechanisms for Multiple Sclerosis.European journal of immunology · 2026Review
- Detecting progressing events in multiple sclerosis clinics in real-time is possible: Yes.Multiple sclerosis (Houndmills, Basingstoke, England) · 2026Article
- Cognitive function is associated with risk of conversion to secondary progressive multiple sclerosis: A cross-sectional study.PloS one · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
45 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) may experience disability progression independent of relapse activity (PIRA), which can be an early sign of secondary progressive MS (SPMS). We defined persistent PIRA as ongoing sustained disability over the entire available follow-up period. However, PIRA events can regress over time. Identifying factors that predict PIRA persistence is of great interest as they can refine the definition of RRMS to SPMS transition. Equally, factors associated with the non-persistence of PIRA have potential treatment implications for patients suffering from a PIRA event. We conducted a study to examine risk factors for PIRA persistence and risk differences in long-term disability progression between persistent and non-persistent PIRA. In this cohort study, we included only patients who had already experienced a PIRA event and investigated the persistence of disability progression following their first PIRA event. Therefore, PIRA occurrence time was set as the baseline. Data were collected from the MSBase registry between April 1995 and January 2024, with a median follow-up of 8.7 years. The primary outcome was time to 6-month confirmed non-persistence of PIRA. Secondary outcomes comprised time to 6-month confirmed Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) 6 and time to SPMS. A stratified Cox regression model was used to identify risk factors associated with non-persistent PIRA. We then matched persistent PIRA patients with non-persistent PIRA patients in a 1:1 ratio using propensity scores, and compared their risk of reaching EDSS 6 using the Cox regression model. We re-matched patients with complete Kurtzke Functional Systems Scores to compare their risks of reaching SPMS. We included 4713 RRMS patients with PIRA, of whom around one-third experienced a post-PIRA disability improvement, over a relatively long period (median of 2.6 years to improvement). Use of high-efficacy disease-modifying therapies (DMT) at baseline [hazard ratio, 1.22; 95% confidence interval, (1.08-1.38);
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.