Neurological sciences : official journal of the Italian Neurological Society and of the Italian Society of Clinical Neurophysiology
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Case Reports
Widespread urticaria due to intramuscular interferon beta-1a therapy for multiple sclerosis.
We describe two multiple sclerosis patients who displayed widespread urticaria due to intramuscular interferon beta-1a (INF-β-1a). Clinicians should be aware of this adverse event, since it may be severe and it may lead to the definitive interruption of treatment. Widespread urticaria complicating intramuscular INF-β-1a therapy in multiple sclerosis should be therefore added to the list of dermatological lesions associated with interferon therapy.
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Primary headaches are underdiagnosed and undertreated in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). The aim of our study was to investigate the possibility of using the ID migraine™ (ID-M) questionnaire to make a first-line diagnosis of migraine in subjects affected by MS. We consecutively recruited 144 patients regularly attending the MS Centre of S. ⋯ ID-M showed high sensitivity (91%) and specificity (94%) in identifying patients with migraine. ID-M was also able to discriminate patients affected by headache following interferon beta therapy, having only the 10% out of these patients a positive ID-M. The use of the ID-M as a screening test is warranted not only in the epidemiological research, but also to ensure a better clinical management of patients with MS.
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Uric acid (UA) is an endogenous antioxidant. Some studies have described that multiple sclerosis (MS) patients have lower serum UA levels than controls, although it has not been established whether UA is primarily deficient, or secondarily reduced due to its scavenging activity. UA has also been proposed as an indicator of disease activity. ⋯ UA levels were significantly lower when measured during a relapse (n 90) than in a remission period (n 368) (r -0.16, p 0.003) UA levels measured outside a relapse inversely correlated with EDSS score (r -0.15, p 0.001). Lower uric acid levels in MS patients are associated with clinical relapse. This is the first description of an inverse correlation of serum UA levels with disability as assessed by EDSS score.