Neurology: Comorbidities Linked to Disease Activity in MS Patients

A recent study published in the journal Neurology, which aims to determine whether comorbidities is associated with multiple sclerosis (REcurrent, Disability Exacerbation) and MRI results, and researchers conducted a second analysis of the CombiRx clinical trialThe CombiRx trial compared the efficacy of interferon-beta-1a, acetate gratat and these drug combinationsFor participants who were eligible to assess a six-month increase in disability, the researchers used a medical history, accompanying medication, and adverse events to determine comorbiditiesThe combined risks assessed included high blood pressure, dyslipidemia,diabetes
, depression, anxiety disorders, and migrainesClinical outcomes include disease activity, i.eprotocol-defined recurrence, disability exacerbation, and MRI activityThe researchers used the multivariate Cox regression to summarize the prevalence of these comorbidities and their association with disease activity and its componentsof the 1008 participants randomly assigned, 959 (95.1%) were eligible to assess the increase in disability for six monthsThe median follow-up time for the subgroup was 3.4 years (range 0.5-6.9 years)Overall, 55.1% of participants had comorbidities at the time of the groupAfter adjustment, anxiety (risk ratio: 1.25; 95% CI: 1.01-1.55) and blood lipid abnormalities (HR 1.32; 95% CI: 1.01-1.72) were associated with an increased risk of any disease activity, while migraines (HR 0.80; 95% CI: 0.67-0.96) is associated with risk reduction, participants' comorbidities are common in large trials with strict outcomes and can affect the outcome of the disease, including relapseThe comorbidity burden of MS participants may be an important factor in the outcome of clinical trials, so further research is needed on the effects of comorbidities on clinical trial outcomes and on the response to disease-improved therapies