cations; and the Medical Image
Analysis Center at Basel, Switzerland that plays a leading role
in evaluating MRIs in large MS
trials.
Dr. Weiner and his colleagues
in the SUMMIT Consortium are
putting MS research’s best feet
forward with this collaborative
effort, and the results are sure to
point us toward ways for stopping MS progression in its tracks.
“A New York State of Mind”
The other team tackling the risk
factors for MS progression has
designed a project involving the
New York State MS Consortium
(NYSMSC). NYSMSC is composed of 15 MS treatment centers
throughout New York State, and
was established 15 years ago to
develop a robust tool for following
people with MS. The NYSMSC
database now has data on more
than 9,000 people with MS.
Bianca Weinstock-Guttman,
MD, noted MS researcher and
director of the Baird MS Center
at the University of Buffalo, is
studying a group of 500 people
with MS. The team is using
newly developed and sensitive
neuropsychological, imaging,
biomarker and patient-perceived
measures along with the classic
gold standard outcomes (such
as the EDSS scale of MS disease
activity). They are looking at the
impact of a variety of factors,
such as vitamin D levels, smoking history, and MS genetic risk.
In a unique aspect of this
project, Dr. Weinstock-Guttman
and colleagues are including 20%
African-American patients. African-Americans actually make up
a much lower percentage of the
general population but African-Americans with MS have been
found to be at higher risk for a
more rapidly progressive disease
course. It is hoped that this kind
of “oversampling” will help reveal
whether the risk factors associated with disease progression in
African-Americans are similar
to or different from those of the
general MS population.
Dr. Weinstock-Guttman and
colleagues are uniquely poised for
the MRI aspects of these studies, as the Buffalo Neuroimag-ing Analysis Center is a leading
facility in MS imaging research.
This team has already gathered
substantial preliminary data for
this effort, showing distinct MRI
findings in African-Americans,
associations between Epstein-Barr virus and MRI outcomes,
and a link between smoking and
brain tissue volume loss.
This innovative approach to
risk assessment provides exciting
opportunities to demonstrate
how MS is related to the most
compelling risk factors and to
identify their role in predicting
disease progression.
Examining early progression
Society-funded investigations
dealing with the problem of MS
progression include a new, large-
scale study by Alberto Ascherio,
MD, DrPH (Harvard School of
Public Health and professor of
Medicine at Harvard Medical
School), who is an internation-
ally recognized expert in the
epidemiology of neurodegenera-
tive diseases.
