Ferreira D, Voevodskaya O, Imrell K, Stawiarz L, Spulber G, Wahlund LO, Hillert J, Westman E, Karrenbauer VD.
J Neuroimmunol. 2014. pii: S0165-5728(14)00181-7. doi: 10.1016/j.jneuroim.2014.06.010. [Epub ahead of print]
To investigate whether multiple sclerosis (MS) patients with and without cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) oligoclonal immunoglobulin G bands (OCB) differ in brain atrophy. Twenty-eight OCB-negative and thirty-five OCB-positive patients were included. Larger volumes of total CSF and white matter (WM) lesions; smaller gray matter (GM) volume in the basal ganglia, diencephalon, cerebellum, and hippocampus; and smaller WM volume in corpus callosum, periventricular-deep WM, brainstem, and cerebellum, were observed in OCB-positives. OCB-negative patients, known to differ genetically from OCB-positives, are characterized by less global and regional brain atrophy. This finding supports the notion that OCB-negative MS patients may represent a clinically relevant MS subgroup.
If MSers did not have oligoclonal bands they appeared to do better, is this cause and effect. If there is limited immune activation in the CNS then there appears to be less damage, but should this be a different subset of MS?. If there is no difference in response to therapy, which currently appears to be the case then surely there is limited merit in this but it could be of relevance when recruiting for trials such that this subset is equally represented in studies