Contrast enhancing lesions on MRI are indicative of active inflammatory demyelination, a feature consistently
observed in multiple sclerosis (MS)
Association of Age with
Contrast-Enhancing Lesions Across the Multiple Sclerosis Disease Spectrum
CELs are known to decrease with age, but their association with age across MS disease courses is not clear
Data from trials focusing on MS disease course
Study question
Is there an association between age and presence of contrast enhancing lesions?
Frequency of contrast enhancing lesions at baseline
Risk of contrast enhancing lesions was associated with age across all four trials
Higher age was associated with decreased CEL occurrence across the course of MS
CELs
Relapsing remitting
Primary progressive Secondary progressive
Relapsing-remitting MS
Occurrence of CELs per age group at:
Multivariable binary logistic regression
model (CombiRx, n = 1008)
CombiRx (OR* = 0.96, CI = 0.95-0.98) PROMISE (OR* = 0.94, CI = 0.91-0.96)
INFORMS (OR* = 0.97, CI = 0.94-0.99) ASCEND (OR* = 0.94, CI = 0.92-0.97) Secondary progressive MS
(ASCEND, n = 889)
Baseline
CombiRx
39.6% 23.9% 14% 12.3%
ASCEND PROMISE INFORMS
1-year follow-up Primary progressive MS
(PROMISE, n = 943 &
INFORMS, n = 970)
Linear decrease in contrast enhancing lesions in participants
with advanced age
Contrast enhancing lesions
Contrast
enhancing lesions
Age
Age
*ORs are per year of increase in age
doi:10.1212/WNL.0000000000012603
Copyright © 2021 American Academy of Neurology
