Rasha Ali Elqabany, MostafaSaleh Melake, Nancy Tharwat Mohamed, Mona Sabry Elkholy
Objective: To measure the relation between COVID-19 infection and relapse rate in comparison with average Annual Relapse Rate(ARR) in MS patients assessment of infection severity according to line of Disease Modifying Treatment (DMT) in different patients determining the effect of COVID-19 infection on Expanded Disability Status Scale(EDSS).
Methods: A prospective multi-center Cohort study was conducted at Menoufia university hospital and Elsheikh Zayed Al Nahyan Hospital on a sample of 200 patient with COVID-19 infection and Multiple Sclerosis(MS) disease during the period from June 2020 to June 2022, it started at the time of visit and for follow up till six-month clinical study after covid-19 infection.
Results: There is no significant increase in number of relapses in the 6 months follows up after COVID yet with less number of clinical relapses,There is no significant relation between COVID severity and line of MS treatmentand There is high significant increase in the EDSS of the studied MS patients after 6 months post COVID infection (P-value<0.002). However the mean rate of EDSS change is 0.17±0.06 which is considered not clinically significant on any of the major EDSS domains.
Conclusion: There is no significant increase in number of relapses in the 6 months follows up after COVID infection There is no significant relation between COVID severity and line of DMT patients with higher EDSS and higher relapse rate before infection have more severe COVID symptoms.