Background: Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a debilitating disease of the central nervous system. Usually, long-term MS medications are injected intramuscularly or subcutaneously, making them intolerable for many MS patients.
Objectives:In the present study, the rate and the causes of non-adherence to MS disease-modifying drugs (DMDs) were assessed in patients with MS.
Materials and Methods:Two hundred and three MS patients of Guilan MS Society were interviewed demographic and clinical data of the patients were collected.
Results:Among the 203 patients, 73.9% were female. The mean±SD age of the patients was 32.47±9.15. Non-adherence to DMDs was due to side effects (21.7%) and requests of the families (21.7%) or ineffectiveness (17.4%). Significant association was seen between the non-adherence to DMDs and gender (p=0.015) and relapses (p=0.021).
Conclusion:The evidence from the present study suggests that there is a high rate of non-adherence to DMDs in MS patients in Guilan.
Keywords: Multiple Sclerosis; Medication Adherence
Bullet points: Disease-modifying drugs are somehow intolerable for patients with MS. A high rate of nonadherence to DMDs in MS patients was demonstrated.
Introduction:Bacterial meningitis is an acute infectious inflammation of the protective membranes covering the brain. Its early diagnosis is vital because of its high morbidity and mortality. It is mostly diagnosed by a gold standard diagnostic tool i.e. Cerebrospinal Fluid (CSF) analysis. However, it is sometimes difficult and or impossible to do this procedure and an alternative diagnostic tool is needed. Contrast enhanced magnetic resonance imaging can detect the pus or other changes in subarachnoid space. But our optimal aim is to use an imaging method without using contrast to be useable and available in more specific condition.Methods:This study aimed to survey the role of non-contrast Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) in the diagnosis of the bacterial meningitis. MEDLINE/PubMed Central, Web of Science and Scopus were searched without time period and language limitation until March 2017. We found 6410 papers in our initial search. After assessing the content of the papers based on Cochrane library guidelines and inclusion/exclusion criteria, 6 relevant studies were included in the systematic review. All of included studies were observational studies.Results:MRI studies demonstrated that Fluid Attenuation Inversion Recovery (FLAIR) and Diffusion-Weighted Image (DWI) MR imaging among all MRI modalities can detect some abnormalities compatible with bacterial meningitis. FLAIR and DWI-MR imaging are potentially useful to diagnose bacterial meningitis and can be used in emergent condition in which bacterial meningitis is highly suspicious and the other diagnostic tools are not available or feasible.
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