Established risk factors for multiple sclerosis (MS) do not appear to impact risk of transverse myelitis (TM) or neuromyelitis optica (NMO), according to a case-control study of participants in the Accelerated Cure Project for Multiple Sclerosis.
Researchers analyzed 1,237 MS cases, 98 NMO cases, 133 TM cases, and 488 healthy controls for MS risk factors including smoking history, a history of infectious mononucleosis, anti-EBNA1 Ab titers, and HLA-DR15, and found:
• Risk factors and odds of MS were as expected.
• There was little evidence of an association between the risk factors for MS and increased odds of NMO or TM.
Citation: Simon KC, Schmidt H, Loud S, Ascherio A. Risk factors for multiple sclerosis, neuromyelitis optica and transverse myelitis. Mult Scler. 2015;21(6):703-709. doi:10.1177/1352458514551780.