Results Average rank correlations between any of the MRI assessment procedures and either clinical outcome measure were less than 0.15 in absolute magnitude. The average rank correlation between the two MRI assessment procedures was 0.10. There is only a weak degree of association between the MRI assessment procedures and the clinical parameters, although the study has statistical power in excess of 0.90 to find even a moderate level of association between them. Since physical disability was similar for both groups, Disability in PPMS may be predominantly due to Spinal Cord involvement. ImmunoSuppression can often treat Experimental AutoImmune Encephalitis, an imperfect model of Multiple Sclerosis.
Therapeutic trials have their methodological weaknesses but do allow certain conclusions.
The Progressive forms of Multiple Sclerosis are the most widely studied. Massive but short-term ImmunoSuppression does not appear to affect the course of progression but prolonged ImmunoSuppression would appear to slow down the process, at least in responders. The effect on disease progression is modest and preference should go to well-tolerated treatments. ImmunoSuppression appears to effectively decrease the number of acute episodes and reduce the number of new lesions detectable by Magnetic Resonance Imaging. The effect of ImmunoSuppression is limited however by the fact that the clinical course of Progressive forms depends less on the development of new lesions than on an aggravation of the DeMyelinization process and possible Axon Loss within constituted lesions.