Clinically isolated syndrome

Optic neuritis (ON) represents around 30% of clinical presentation of clinically isolated syndrome (CIS). Asymptomatic optic nerve involvement is very frequent in all stage of multiple sclerosis (MS) disease including the CIS. However, optic nerve is still not part of MS diagnosis criteria. The main objective of our regional and multicenter study is to evaluate the prognostic value of optic nerve involvement at the earliest clinical stage of MS (=CIS) for the diagnosis of clinically definite MS (2nd clinical relapse) and the delay until the 2nd relapse.

The brain possesses a system to get rid of unwanted substances, named Glymphatic System (GS). When this system is faulty, these accumulate, there is local inflammation, and progressive death of the cells. This occurs in neurological diseases including Parkinson's, or Alzheimer's. Inflammation and progressive death of the cells are also present in another neurological disorder, named Multiple Sclerosis (MS).
Doctors think that GS dysfunction plays a role in MS too. In this research therefore, the aim is to study whether it drives inflammation, and disease progression in MS patients.
The researchers have developed a new way to find signs of alteration of the GS using a scan named Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and will use it in a pilot study on patients with a condition named Clinically Isolated Syndrome (CIS), which often represents the very beginning of MS. It would therefore be demonstrated that the GS is a new mechanism of disease in CIS, which may associate with the symptoms, or the alterations in the levels of some substances in the blood suggestive of brain cells damage.
Should this study be successful, this would provide preliminary evidence to perform a larger research study to assess if GS dysfunction drives the progression of MS.

The RECLAIM study aims to gather a centralized and harmonized dataset, enabling the secondary use of data for building AI-based models that will support diagnosis and prognosis of individual Multiple Sclerosis patient's disease course and treatment response in a real-world setting. Additionally, the data will be used to generate further insights on Multiple Sclerosis progression as well as to develop the tools to monitor this progression.