Fampridine may have positive impact for optic neuritis in multiple sclerosis
Key takeaways:
- Fampridine resulted in no significant observed difference in eyes affected by optic neuritis.
- Larger randomized controlled clinical trials are necessary to confirm initial findings.
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Treatment with fampridine may positively impact patients with multiple sclerosis who are recovering from optic neuritis, but more extensive clinical trials are required to fully assess its effectiveness, according to a poster at ACTRIMS.
“We are looking to improve visual acuity and visual function in individuals who have had a previous optic neuritis or visual impairment,” Courtney C. Casserly, MD, assistant professor of neurology at Western University in Ontario, Canada, told Healio. “We didn’t want to capture anybody who was in an acute attack.”
Casserly and colleagues sought to examine the effect of fampridine SR — previously approved for gait improvement — on vision in a small cohort of individuals with MS who demonstrated incomplete or poor recovery from an episode of optic neuritis.
Their open-label, investigator-initiated clinical trial included 11 individuals (mean age, 46.75 years) who were given 10 mg of fampridine twice per day for 8 weeks.
All participants had objective visual acuity tests as well as those involving gait speed and a self-reported visual dysfunction questionnaire.
A total of eight participants (mean age 47.50±6.99 years; 62.5% women) completed the study.
According to results, fampridine treatment yielded no statistically significant alterations of visual function of the affected eyes within the patient population.
Casserly and colleagues reported that 11 of 16 eyes showed some kind of stability or improvement while four of eight participants recorded visual improvement in at least one eye. The researchers also noted fampridine’s impact on unaffected eyes — suggesting potential benefits of administration — as well as improvement on the timed 25-foot walk.
They concluded that a larger sample size within larger randomized, controlled clinical trials is required to further confirm these initial findings.
“Individuals who took the drug had a trend toward significance for low-contrast visual acuity and color vision, but the study was too small to include anything of statistical significance,” Casserly told Healio.