Patient-Reported Outcome Measures Significantly Associated With Disability Scores in Patients With MS

Patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) in patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (MS) closely parallel disability, suggest study results published in Acta Neurologica Belgica.

“PROMs facilitate the detection of hidden aspects of MS and help to integrate the patient’s subjective experience of health-related quality of life status and treatment satisfaction in a holistic way,” wrote researchers from the Université Catholique de Louvain, Brussels, Belgium. “However, the relationship between PROMs and clinical and cognitive status has been scarcely investigated up to now.”

The study included 59 consecutive patients with relapsing-remitting MS from two centers. Participants underwent neurological examination as well as disability assessment via the Expanded Disability Status Scale, comprehensive cognitive tests, and a set of self-reported questionnaires.

Some 56% of participants had cognitive impairment, according to the study. No significant differences in PROMs were observed between patients with cognitive impairment and patients without cognitive impairment.

With the exception of psychological measures on a few scales, all PROMs were significantly linked with disability scores. Researchers identified no correlation between PROMs and cognitive performance. Age, female gender, education, disability, and hippocampus and fluid-attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) lesion volumes predicted cognitive impairment, analysis showed. 

“Additional research should determine the relevance of PROMs as longitudinal outcome measures,” the authors advised.

Reference:
London F, El Sankari S, De Haan A, et al. Patient-reported outcome measurements in a selective cohort of relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis patients: relationships with physical disability, cognitive impairment, and MRI-derived metrics. Acta Neurol Belg. Published online March 6, 2023. doi:10.1007/s13760-023-02225-x