Prognostic factors for long-term outcomes in relapsing–remitting multiple sclerosis:

ObjectiveThe objective of this article is to investigate potential clinical and MRI predictors of long-term outcomes in multiple sclerosis (MS).MethodsThis was a post hoc analysis using data from all 382 patients in the PRISMS long-term follow-up (LTFU) study collected up to eight years after randomisation. An additional analysis was performed including only those patients originally randomised to receive early subcutaneous interferon (IFN) β-1a (n = 259). Baseline/prestudy variables, indicators of early clinical and MRI activity (baseline to month 24), and indicators of IFN β-1a treatment exposure (including medication possession ratio (MPR)) were investigated as candidate prognostic factors for outcomes measured from baseline and from month 24 to LTFU. Explanatory variables identified from univariate regression models (p ≤ 0.15) were selected for inclusion in stepwise multiple regression models.ResultsCandidate prognostic factors selected by the univariate analysis (p ≤ 0.15) included age, MS duration, ...