EAGLE Carol Carlson, of Eagle, has been living with multiple sclerosis for 26 years. She is hoping to change that reality this spring. Hope thats what this story is about. Carlson was just 24 years old when she received her MS diagnosis. She was a senior at Northwestern University and her plans involved a move to Colorado when she finished her degree. It was a busy time, but she noticed a strange stinging, burning feeling in her upper arm and decided to get it checked out. When she told the doctor about some other symptoms, he referred her to a neurologist, who ordered an MRI. I was very scared and worried because my mom had died from cancer when I was in high school, Carlson said. But she didnt get a cancer diagnosis. Instead, the doctor diagnosed relapsing/remitting MS. I said Whats that? Carlson said. According to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, MS is an unpredictable, often disabling disease of the central nervous system that disrupts the flow of information within the brain, and between the brain and body. MS symptoms are variable and unpredictable and most commonly include fatigue, walking difficulties, vision problems, spasticity, weakness and more. Moving on … Continue reading →

We're creating a positive news network. We need your help. Multiple Sclerosis, or MS, is among the most common chronic inflammatory diseases of the central nervous system,affectingan estimated 2 million people worldwide. Symptoms of MS can include extreme fatigue, lack of coordination, numbness or tingling, bladder problems, cognitive impairment, tremors, mood changes, and weakness, amongothers, and can vary greatly from person to person. Last year, research led by two Canadian doctors from Ottawa, Ontario, andpublished in The Lancetmedical journal, revealed thata high-risk therapy may be able to stop the disease from progressing further. This is the first treatment to produce this level of disease control or neurological recovery from MS, the journal saidin a news release, but researchers also admittheprocedure may be too risky to offerMS sufferers, asone out of the 24 patients involved in the clinical trial died from liver failure. Despite this fact, the results are impressive. In the journals accompanying editorial, a German doctor marvelled at the treatmentsefficacy, noting that its the first trial ever that showed complete suppression of any inflammatory disease actively in every single patient for a prolonged period. This editorial also says that, for the time being, the treatment should be restricted to … Continue reading →

A blood test for determining the subtype ofMS could be as little as two years away following the discovery of a blood biomarker(Credit: alexraths/Depositphotos) Although there is no known cure for multiple sclerosis (MS), there are treatments that can help prevent new attacks and improve function after an attack. However, there are three subtypes of the disease and determining this, as well as the appropriateness and effectiveness of a patient's current treatment, involves an array of expensive, time-consuming tests. Now, after a search lasting 12 years, an international team of researchers has identified a biomarker that would allow MS subtypes to be determined with a simple blood test. Currently, when patients are diagnosed with MS they face a wait before the subtype of the disease can be determined. During this time, they may receive medication that is ineffective for periods of weeks. The researchers say the biomarker blood test, which can determine the type of MS someone has with an accuracy of 85 to 90 percent, will allow doctors to adapt treatments faster. "This is a significant discovery because it will facilitate the ability to quickly and simply make a prognosis of the three types of MS and will allow … Continue reading →

WESTPORT, CT--(Marketwired - January 31, 2017) - Real Endpoints, LLC (RE), a data and analytics firm focusing on assessing and quantifying pharmaceutical value, has just completed an extensive literature review and survey to tease out how different stakeholder groups assess the value of current multiple sclerosis (MS) therapies.1 Key findings of the literature review and survey are two-fold: Conclusions Preliminary results of the survey and literature review indicate that population-level judgments of value may not capture the variability in preferences and treatment effect among individual MS patients, payers and physicians (further research should be done to confirm these findings). Additionally, potential disparity may exist between judgments of value used at the payer level to determine coverage of MS treatments, and what MS patients would define as valuable in their own treatment decision-making. This variability should be taken into account in healthcare decision-making, on the payer, provider and patient level. Furthermore, any tool, such as a value framework, used to quantify the value of an MS treatment should transparently define the differences in preferences and treatment goals. Key Findings Background & Methodology A team of trained academic and non-academic clinicians and researchers reviewed over 300 research articles from scientific literature around … Continue reading →

The prognosis for people affected by multiple sclerosis (MS), a degenerative autoimmune disorder that decimates the central nervous system, is a bleak one. The disease oftenbegins with a sudden burst of neurological symptoms like muscle spasms, vision problems, and trouble walking, then progresses differently, depending on which form of MS someone has. But eventually, nearly everyone with the disease comesto the point of being unable to move, breathe, or live independently. And sufferers on average live anywhere from five to ten years less than the general public. Currently, the best medications we have available do little more than slow MS down, or tamp down peoples symptoms. But an experimental therapy continues to provide the first glimmers of something ground-breaking an actual way to stop one form of the disease in its tracks, and maybe even reverse some of the damage already done. In this months Neurology, researchers detailed the final five-year-old results of a small clinical trial called HALT-MS. Twenty-four volunteers with MS who hadnt responded to conventional drugs were first given a powerful form of chemotherapy, high-dose immunosuppressive therapy (HDIT), that wiped out their immune system. Then they were given a transplant of their own stem cells taken out … Continue reading →