Table 1.
Demographic, clinical and venous hemodynamic characteristics of relapsing remitting MS patients and healthy controlsa
| Characteristic | MS patients (n = 16) |
Healthy controls (n = 8) |
P value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Female sex, n (%) | 10 (63%) | 6 (75%) | NS |
| Mean age, yr (±SD) | 36.1 ± 7.3 | 33.1 ± 7.3 | NS |
| Disease duration, mean (±SD) | 7.5 ± 1.9 | ||
| Age at diagnosis, mean (±SD) | 35.8 ± 9.2 | ||
| Expanded Disability Status Scale, mean (±SD) and median (range) | 2.4 ± 0.9, 2.5 (1.0 to 3.5) | ||
| Mean Multiple Sclerosis Functional Composite score (±SD) | -2.5 ± 0.03 | -2.5 ± 0.02 | NS |
| Mean treatment duration, yr (±SD) | 4.3 ± 3.4 | ||
| Distribution of VH criteria, n (%) | |||
| VH1 | 12 (75%) | 0 (0%) | <0.001 |
| VH2 | 14 (88%) | 0 (0%) | |
| VH3 | 14 (88%) | 1 (13%) | |
| VH4 | 13 (81%) | 0 (0%) | |
| VH5 | 8 (50%) | 0 (0%) | |
| Mean number of VH criteria (±SD) | 3.8 ± 0.23 | 0.12 ± 0.35 | <0.001 |
| Mean VHISS (±SD) | 8.9 ± 2.8 | 0 ± 0 | <0.001 |
aMS, multiple sclerosis; VH, venous hemodynamic; SD, standard deviation; VHISS, venous hemodynamic insufficiency severity score; NS, nonsignificant. The differences between MS patients and healthy controls were assessed using the Student's t-test, Fisher's exact test and Mann-Whitney rank-sum test.