Chronic Cerebrospinal Vascular Insufficiency Is Not Associated with HLA DRB1*1501 Status in Multiple Sclerosis Patients

Competing Interests: RZ received speaker honoraria, consultant fees and research support from Teva Neuroscience, Biogen Idec, Questcor, and Genzyme; speaker honoraria and consultant fees from EMD Serono; and research support from the National Multiple Sclerosis Society (NMSS), Teva Pharmaceuticals, Bracco, and Greatbatch. Additional contributions were provided by the Direct Multiple Sclerosis Foundation, Jacquemin Family Foundation, Tactical Technologies, Estee Lauder Companies, and the Pink Door. BWG received compensation for speaking and financial support for research activities from Teva Neuroscience, Biogen Idec, and EMD Serono. She also received financial support for research activities from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), NMSS, National Science Foundation (NSF), Cyberonics, and the Jog for the Jake Foundation. MR received research funding or consulting fees from EMD Serono, Biogen Idec, Allergan, Netezza, Pfizer, Novartis, NMSS, the Department of Defense, Jog for the Jake Foundation, the NIH, and the NSF. He serves as an editor for The American Association of Pharmaceutical Sciences. GC received compensation for participation in Data and Safety Monitoring Committees: Sanofi-Aventis, Cleveland Clinic, Daichi-Sankyo, GlaxoSmithKline, Genmab Biopharmaceuticals, Eli Lilly, Medivation, Modigenetech, Ono Pharmaceuticals, PTC Therapeutics, Teva, Vivus, University of Pennsylvania, National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI), National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Stroke (NINDS), and NMSS and received consulting, speaking, and advisory board fees from Alexion, Bayhill, Bayer, Novartis, Genzyme, Klein-Buendel, Peptimmune, Somnus Pharmaceuticals, Sandoz, Teva Pharmaceuticals, University of Texas Southwestern, Visioneering Technologies, as well as grant support from the NINDS, Consortium of MS Centers, NMSS, NHLBI, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, National Institute on Aging, and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease. RHBB has served on advisory panels for Biogen, EMD Serono, Merck, Novartis, and Bayer. He has received continuing medical education funding from Bayer, Merck, and Biogen and grant support from the NMSS, NIH, Biogen, and Shire. He receives royalties from Psychological Assessment Resources. There are no patents, products in development, or marketed products to declare. MTB, DB, KM, EC, ME, and CK do not have any conflicts of interest. This does not alter the authors' adherence to all the PLoS ONE policies on sharing data and materials. Funding: This study was funded by internal resources of the Buffalo Neuroimaging Analysis Center and Baird MS Center, the Jacobs Neurological Institute, and the University of Buffalo. In addition, the authors received support from the Direct MS Foundation, the Jacquemin Family Foundation, Suzanne Brown, Estee Lauder Companies, Greg Gibb, Roland Kurman, Carmen and Suzzanne Linderman, Liliana Macreanu, Jill and Larry Nolan, Tactical Technologies, The Flowers4MS Foundation, and The Pink Door. Suzanne Brown, Greg Gibb, Roland Kurman, Carmen and Suzzanne Linderman, Liliana Macreanu, and Jill and Larry Nolan donated as private individuals. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.