COVID-19 linked to increased risk of physical disability progression in MS
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Key takeaways:
- The study included 231 participants with MS, 88 with COVID-19 infection and 143 without.
- Those with COVID had an increased risk of higher EDSS score, increased risk of disability progression.
In a cohort of individuals with MS, a diagnosis of COVID-19 was linked to an increased risk of disability progression compared with those without, according to a presentation from ECTRIMS 2023.
“Important research is ongoing trying to find environmental triggers that could cause exacerbations in MS where infections have been proposed as a possible trigger,” Jan Hillert, MD, PhD, professor of neurology in the department of clinical neuroscience at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, and colleagues wrote.
Hillert and fellow researchers sought to examine the impact of COVID-19 on physical disability progression in patients with MS at Karolinska University Hospital, assessed by Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) scores.
Their retrospective cohort study included 231 individuals with MS (without reported COVID-19 infection, n = 143; with reported COVID-19 infection, n = 88), as well as data on clinicodemographic variables and EDSS scores between September 2017 and February 2023 collected from the Swedish MS registry and/or electronic journal system. TakeCare. Researchers compared EDSS changes in participants with reported COVID-19 infection against those without from January 2020 to October 2021. Logistic regression models were used to calculate ORs for EDSS progression depending on status of COVID-19 infection, adjusted for relevant clinicodemographic variables.
According to results, participants with reported COVID-19 infection registered an increased risk of EDSS progression compared to those without reported COVID-19 infection (OR = 8.20; 95% CI, 1.62-41.51).
“The results indicate that COVID-19 infection was associated with EDSS worsening,” Hillert and colleagues wrote. “However, additional studies in bigger cohorts are required for more robust conclusions.”