Table 1.
Demographic, clinical, MRI and Doppler characteristics of the multiple sclerosis patients and the healthy controls.
| Group characteristics | MS (n=132) | HC (n=47) | p-value* | Cohen’s d | ANCOVA** |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Female/male, n (females %) | 92/40 (69.7) | 34/13 (72.3) | 0.761 | - | - |
| Age, mean (SD) | 53.5 (11.3) | 50.8 (12.8) | 0.184 | - | - |
| Disease duration, mean (SD) | 20.4 (10.5) | - | - | - | - |
| EDSS, median (IQR) | 3.0 (2.0–6.0) | - | - | - | - |
| RRMS vs. PMS | 82/50 | - | - | - | - |
| Body mass index, mean (SD) | 27.7 (5.9) | 26.4 (5.7) | 0.230 | - | - |
| Hypertension, n (%) | 25 (18.9) | 12 (25.5) | 0.402 | - | - |
| Hyperlipidemia, n (%) | 27 (20.5) | 11 (23.4) | 0.681 | - | - |
| Heart Disease, n (%) | 23 (17.4) | 4 (8.5) | 0.232 | - | - |
| Years of education, mean (SD) | 14.9 (2.3) | 14.7 (2.5) | 0.639 | - | - |
| CVLT-II total, mean (SD) | 51.9 (12.6) | 54.9 (9.9) | 0.107 | 0.262 | 0.222 |
| BVMT-R total, mean (SD) | 21.9 (7.9) | 26.5 (6.5) | 0.001 | 0.625 | 0.001 |
| SDMT total, mean (SD) | 49.5 (12.5) | 55.5 (12.6) | 0.013 | 0.442 | 0.029 |
| Total CABF (ml/min) | 961.6 (257.8) | 967.5 (292.0) | 0.897 | 0.026 | 0.822 |
| T2-LV, mean (SD) | 13.5 (16.0) | 0.4 (1.1) | <0.001 | 1.149 | <0.001 |
| GMV, mean (SD) | 732.3 (60.5) | 768.0 (58.1) | 0.003 | 0.544 | 0.001 |
Legend: MS – multiple sclerosis, HC – healthy controls, IQR – interquartile range EDSS – Expanded Disability Status Scale, RRMS – relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis, PMS – progressive multiple sclerosis, CVLT-II- California Verbal Learning Test - Second Edition, BVMT – Brief Visual-Spatial Memory Test, SDMT – Symbol Digit Modalities Test, CABF – cerebral arterial blood flow, GMV – gray matter volume, LV – lesion volume.
All neuropsychological test are shown as raw scores. P-values <0.05 was considered significant and are shown in bold.
χ2 test, Mann-Whitney ran-sum test and Student’s t-test were used, as appropriate.
Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) adjusted for age was used.