The Effect of COVİD-19 on Disease Activity, Progression and Cognitive Dysfunction in Individuals with Multiple Sclerosis, Receiving Disease-Modifying Therapy
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Keywords: COVID-19, Multiple Sclerosis, Disease-modifying therapiesAbstract
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 (Coronavirüs Disease-19) pandemic, it has been a matter of curiosity how patients with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) will be affected by this viral infection. Reporting demyelinating events of the central nervous system associated with COVID-19 infection and suggesting that the effects of disease-modifying therapies (DMT) on the immune response may change the course of COVID-19 have created the need to collect information about clinical results. Research is ongoing to determine whether there are differences in attack severity and response to acute treatments between demyelinating events associated with COVID-19 infection and events not related to infection.This study was conducted to investigate the effect of COVID-19 infection on the course of MS in 30 patients with MS who were infected with COVID-19 and were receiving DMT. 30 patients who were followed up with a diagnosis of MS between January 2020 and January 2024 were evaluated for 36 months in terms of disease progression, relapses, changes in magnetic rezonans imaging (MRI) findings (brain lesions), and cognitive effects. Of the 30 patients, 20 were female and 10 were male. The age range varied between 25-70. As for the disease types, 5 cases were secondary progressive multiple sclerosis (SPMS) and 25 cases were Relapsing Remitting Multiple Sclerosis (RRMS). The disease-modifying therapies used were Dimethyl Fumarate in 20 cases and Fingolimod in 10 cases. Two of the patients with SPMS had a severe relapse after COVID-19 infection. These patients were using Fingolimod. In 28 patients in the whole group; there was no recurrence, progression, change in MRI findings or deterioration in cognitive functions. In this study, no findings were observed indicating that COVID-19 had negative effects on multiple sclerosis.
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