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TOPLINE:
Despite COVID-19 triggering autoimmune conditions in healthy individuals, it does not appear to increase the risk for clinical and MRI disease activity or motor and cognitive worsening in people with multiple sclerosis (MS), a new study shows.
METHODOLOGY:
The analysis included 136 people with MS who had a history of COVID-19 (median age 41 years; MS-COVID group), and 186 people with MS with no history of COVID-19 who were matched for age, sex, Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS), disease duration, and treatment type (MS-NCOVID group).
Patients underwent regular neurologic follow-up, brain MRI, neuropsychological evaluations, and assessments of fatigue using the Modified Fatigue Impact Scale (MFIS), depression and anxiety using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), sleep using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), and psychological and posttraumatic effects related to COVID using the Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES- R).
Researchers also measured immune response to SARS-CoV-2 in the two groups.
TAKEAWAY:
During the 18-24 months following COVID infection, there was no significant difference between groups in EDSS worsening, percentages of patients with relapses, need for change in disease-modifying therapy, new/enlarging brain T2-hyperintense lesions, and gadolinium-enhancing lesions.
At follow-up, 28 (22%) MS-COVID and 40 (23%) MS-NCOVID patients were cognitively impaired, with no significant between-group difference, which was also the case for global cognitive functions, verbal and visual memory, information processing speed, attention, and verbal fluency.
