The new criteria increase the estimates, but NMOSD remains as a rare disease. The differences in age- and sex-specific estimates highlight the importance of the serologic classification.
Delay in arrival to the emergency room (ER) may negatively influence outcome of stroke patients. We aim to analyze factors that influence extra-hospital delay in stroke patients. Two hundred and ninety-two consecutive stroke patients admitted in the ER were prospectively studied. Analysis was made to identify variables associated with <1- and <3 h delays from onset. About 18.8% of patients arrived before 1 h and 57.5% before 3 h. Factors independently associated with <3 h delay were decision to go immediately to ER (OR = 8.17; 95% IC = 4.47-18.8), ambulance transportation (OR = 2.35; 1.36-4.05) and total anterior circulation syndrome (TACS) (OR = 3.74; 1.51-9.24). History of >1 vascular risk factor was associated with a greater delay (OR = 0.47; 0.26-0.86). Factors associated with a <1 h delay were: (i) immediate decision to attend the ER (OR = 3.55; 1.85-6.81), (ii) stroke on Sunday (OR = 3.46; 1.56-7.66), (iii) aphasia (OR = 2.41; 1.23-4.74), (iv) absence of stairs at home (OR = 0.37; 0.17-0.81) and (v) absence of diabetes mellitus (OR = 0.42; 0.20-0.88). In our area, nearly 60% of stroke patients arrive to ER before 3 h from onset. Immediate decision to attend the ER has the strongest association with a short delay. Patients with TACS arrived mainly before 3 h and those with isolated aphasia arrived before 1 h. Patients with vascular risk factors attended the hospital later. Ambulance transportation is associated with <3 h delay, but not with <1 h.
Background
Erenumab was approved in Europe for migraine prevention in patients with ≥ 4 monthly migraine days (MMDs). In Spain, Novartis started a personalized managed access program, which allowed free access to erenumab before official reimbursement. The Spanish Neurological Society started a prospective registry to evaluate real-world effectiveness and tolerability, and all Spanish headache experts were invited to participate. We present their first results.
Methods
Patients fulfilled the ICHD-3 criteria for migraine and had ≥ 4 MMDs. Sociodemographic and clinical data were registered as well as MMDs, monthly headache days, MHDs, prior and concomitant preventive treatment, medication overuse headache (MOH), migraine evolution, adverse events, and patient-reported outcomes (PROs): headache impact test (HIT-6), migraine disability assessment questionnaire (MIDAS), and patient global improvement change (PGIC). A > 50% reduction of MMDs after 12 weeks was considered as a response.
Results
We included 210 patients (female 86.7%, mean age 46.4 years old) from 22 Spanish hospitals from February 2019 to June 2020. Most patients (89.5%) suffered from chronic migraine with a mean evolution of 8.6 years. MOH was present in 70% of patients, and 17.1% had migraine with aura. Patients had failed a mean of 7.8 preventive treatments at baseline (botulinum toxin type A—BoNT/A—had been used by 95.2% of patients). Most patients (67.6%) started with erenumab 70 mg. Sixty-one percent of patients were also simultaneously taking oral preventive drugs and 27.6% were getting simultaneous BoNT/A. Responder rate was 37.1% and the mean reduction of MMDs and MHDs was -6.28 and -8.6, respectively. Changes in PROs were: MIDAS: -35 points, HIT-6: -11.6 points, PIGC: 4.7 points. Predictors of good response were prior HIT-6 score < 80 points (p = 0.01), ≤ 5 prior preventive treatment failures (p = 0.026), absence of MOH (p = 0.039), and simultaneous BoNT/A treatment (p < 0.001). Twenty percent of patients had an adverse event, but only two of them were severe (0.9%), which led to treatment discontinuation. Mild constipation was the most frequent adverse event (8.1%).
Conclusions
In real-life, in a personalized managed access program, erenumab shows a good effectiveness profile and an excellent tolerability in migraine prevention in our cohort of refractory patients.
The results support that immune-monitoring of lymphocyte subpopulations in peripheral blood is a promising tool to select RRMS candidate for fingolimod treatment.
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