Table 1.

Summary of multiple sclerosis and control groups used for quantitative analysis

Cohort	Status (n)	Gender	Age at death	Disease duration	PMD
Multiple sclerosis	18 SPMS	9M:13F	50 years (38–66)	25 years (10–39)	17 h (9–26)
	4 PPMS
Inflammatory Ctrls	4 viral encephalitis	6M:2F	37 years (17–65)	n/a	36 h (24–72)
	4 ischaemia
Non-neurological Ctrls	15 controls	9M:6F	67 years (35–88)	n/a	24 h (5–48)

Inflammatory controls are non-MS neurological controls characterised by neuroinflammation and gliosis. Group values showed as median (data range). See (Additional file 1: Table S1) for individual case details including cause of death, disease activity at death and sampled blocks

Ctrls controls, disease duration determined retrospectively from time of first symptom onset to death, F female, M male, PMD post-mortem delay, PPMS primary progressive MS, SPMS secondary progressive MS, n/a not applicable