Male Sex Is Independently Associated with Faster Disability Accumulation in Relapse-Onset MS but Not in Primary Progressive MS

Karen Ann Ribbons*, Patrick McElduff, Cavit Boz, Maria Trojano, Guillermo Izquierdo, Pierre Duquette, Marc Girard, Francois Grand'Maison, Raymond Hupperts, Pierre Grammond, Celia Oreja-Guevara, Thor Petersen, Roberto Bergamaschi, Giorgio Giuliani, Michael Barnett, Vincent van Pesch, Maria-Pia Amato, Gerardo Iuliano, Marcela Fiol, Mark SleeFreek Verheul, Edgardo Cristiano, Ricardo Fernandez-Bolanos, Maria-Laura Saladino, Maria Edite Rio, Jose Cabrera-Gomez, Helmut Butzkueven, Erik van Munster, Leontien Den Braber-Moerland, Daniele La Spitaleri, Alessandra Lugaresi, Vahid Shaygannejad, Orla Gray, Norma Deri, Raed Alroughani, Jeannette Lechner-Scott

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

Multiple Sclerosis is more common in women than men and females have more relapses than men. In a large international cohort we have evaluated the effect of gender on disability accumulation and disease progression to determine if male MS patients have a worse clinical outcome than females.Using the MSBase Registry, data from 15,826 MS patients from 25 countries was analysed. Changes in the severity of MS (EDSS) were compared between sexes using a repeated measures analysis in generalised linear mixed models. Kaplan-Meier analysis was used to test for sex difference in the time to reach EDSS milestones 3 and 6 and the secondary progressive MS.In relapse onset MS patients (n = 14,453), males progressed significantly faster in their EDSS than females (0.133 vs 0.112 per year, P
Original languageEnglish
Article numbere0122686
JournalPLOS ONE
Volume10
Issue number6
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 5 Jun 2015

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