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Do They Prevent the Progression of the Disease?

George Rice, MD, FRCPC; George Ebers, MD, FRCPC
From the Department of Clinical Neurological Sciences, University of Western Ontario, University Hospital, London, Ontario.

Arch Neurol. 1998;55:1578-1580.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

THERE IS little doubt that treatment of multiple sclerosis (MS) with type 1 interferons reduces the frequency of clinical exacerbations. This observation has been corroborated repeatedly. Treatment of 124 patients with recombinant interferon beta-1b (IFN--1b) reduced the frequency of attacks by 33.8%.¹ This reduction was sustained for 5 years but both statistical significance and power were weakened in the later years of the trial, as progressively fewer patients remained in the study. The reduction in the frequency of attacks was associated with a reduction in the severity of attacks, the number of interventions with steroids, and the frequency of hospitalizations.

The reduction in the frequency of attacks was modest in comparison with the reduction in activity shown on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans (median, 80% reduction in the number of active scans identified on sequential T₂-weighted MRI scans). There was . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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