Response to Interferon-Beta Treatment in Afro-Caribbeans with Multiple Sclerosis

Abstract EN

Background.

Multiple sclerosis (MS) patients of African ancestry have a more aggressive disease course than white patients and could be resistant to interferon-beta (INFB).

Methods.

We studied the impact of INFB in treatment-naive Afro-Caribbean (AC) with clinically definite MS using our European Database for Multiple Sclerosis (EDMUS) (2003–2010).

Main outcome measures were annual relapse rate after 2 years of treatment, proportion of exacerbation-free subjects 48 weeks after initiating INFB, and time to first relapse.

Results.

76 AC-MS (59F/17M) were identified.

Annual relapse rate of 1.29 decreased to 0.83 (−35.6%) after 2 years of treatment.

The proportion of relapse-free patients at 48 weeks was 46.2%.

Median time to first relapse was 52 weeks.

Conclusion.

INFB is not strong enough to control AC-MS patients in many cases which is problematic in a population of worse MS prognosis.