IJAR - Indian Journal of Applied Research

Suhailah Abdullah

Volume : VI, Issue : VIII, August - 2016

Treatment modalities in Multiple Sclerosis and NMOSD: The effect of anti AQP4 antibody.

Suhailah Abdullah

Abstract :

Objective: to determine the effect of AQP4 status in relation to treatment response, in patients with IIDDs presented to our centre. Method: Retrospective analysis of treatment response in patients with IIDD in relation to the AQP4 status. Results: 59/ 102 (57.84%) were on at least one treatment. β–Interferon was associated with the highest rate of treatment failure in the seropositive group, 24/ 24 (100.00%) as compared to 2/ 11 (18.18%) in the seronegative group (p< 0.005), followed by mitoxantrone. Oral Azathiophrine was the second common treatment modality. This was associated with significant reduction in the number of relapse (p= 0.008). However, 11/ 23 (47.83%) developed intolerance to the treatment in the form of persistent neutropenia, pancytopenia, acute hepatitis, and 1 case with locally invasive east carcinoma. 6/ 8 (75.00%) experienced no relapse after initiation of IV Rituximab, associated with improvement in term of relapse rate and baseline EDSS (p= 0.003 and 0.022 respectively). Conclusion: The status of anti AQP4 antibody is important in determining the choice of disease modifying therapy.