Table 4.
Demographics and disease characteristics in patients with earlier onset versus simultaneous onset.
| Category | Earlier onset (n = 288) | Simultaneous onset (n = 231) | p value | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Age at study entry (years) | 44.5 ± 7.6, 43.9 (39 to 50)* | 40.4 ± 11.6, 38.9 (30.7 to 50.8) | < 0.001‡ | |
| Sex | Female | 226 (78.5%) | 138 (59.7%) | < 0.001† |
| Male | 62 (21.5%) | 93 (40.3%) | ||
| Age of clinical onset (years) | 36.9 ± 5.2, 36 (33 to 41) | 29.3 ± 11, 26 (22 to 30) | < 0.001‡ | |
| disease type | CIS | 59 (20.5%) | 31 (13.4%) | 0.11† |
| RRMS | 209 (72.6%) | 182 (78.8%) | ||
| SPMS | 20 (6.9%) | 18 (7.8%) | ||
| History of DMT use at study entry | Never used | 125 (43.4%) | 87 (37.7%) | 0.19† |
| Ever used | 163 (56.6%) | 144 (62.3%) | ||
| DMT exposure (years) | n = 163, 2 ± 1.8, 1.6 (0.6 to 3.1) | n = 144, 3.1 ± 3, 2.1 (0.8 to 4.8) | 0.013# | |
| T2 white matter Lesion volume (mm3) | 3776.4 ± 4916.8, 2106.3 (874.7 to 4546.2) | 5719.3 ± 6553.2, 3456.5 (1191.1 to 7743.8) | < 0.001‡ | |
| Normalized thalamic volume at study entry (thalamic volume/ICV*1000) | 9.4 ± 1, 9.4 (8.8 to 10) | 9.1 ± 1, 9.2 (8.5 to 9.7) | 0.012‡ |
CIS clinically isolated syndrome, DMT disease-modifying therapy, ICV intracranial volume, RRMS relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis, SPMS secondary progressive multiple sclerosis, T2 T2-weighted MRI.
*Mean ± SD, Median (Q1, Q3), #Wilcoxon Rank Sum Test, ‡Independent T-Test, †Chi Square Test.