Absence of cerebrospinal fluid oligoclonal bands is associated with delayed disability progression in relapsing-remitting MS patients treated with interferon-beta.
Department of Neurological Sciences and Behaviour, University of Siena, Italy.
To assess the role of cerebrospinal fluid oligoclonal bands in determining the clinical outcome in patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) treated with interferon-beta, we carried out a retrospective, multi-centre, observational study Recruiting 209 RRMS patients from six MS centres from northern, central, and southern areas of Italy under treatment with interferon-beta-1a i.m., interferon-beta-1a s.c. and interferon-beta-1b s.c.
Twenty-two of 209 patients (10.6%) showed no oligoclonal bands in cerebrospinal fluid. The patients without had, at disease onset, significantly higher frequency of visual disturbances (p=0.02) and less sensory involvement (p=0.04) than those with oligoclonal bands. A statistical trend (p=0.056) towards a longer time to reach sustained disability progression during treatment was found in patients without compared to those with oligoclonal bands.
Thirty-six of 187 (19%) patients with oligoclonal bands worsened by at least 1 EDSS point compared to none of 22 (0%) oligoclonal bands-negative patients (p=0.017). The delaying of disability progression in oligoclonal bands-negative patients during treatment was significantly dependent only on the number of baseline MRI T2-weighted lesions (p=0.012) that was found to be significantly lower in oligoclonal bands-negative than in oligoclonal bands-positive patients (p=0.04).
The absence of oligoclonal bands and low number of baseline T2-weighted lesions in this cohort of MS patients are favourable prognostic factors influencing the clinical response to interferon-beta treatment in RRMS patients.