Table 4.25.

Comparative demographic and disease-related characteristics of progressive relapsing cases and primary progressive cases, among 282 patients with a progressive onset of multiple sclerosis from the Lyon, France, multiple sclerosis cohort.

	Progressive relapsing multiple sclerosisa n = 109	Primary progressive multiple sclerosisa n = 173	p value
Gender (%)
Males	38	46	0.15*
Females	62	54
Age at onset of multiple sclerosis (years)
Mean ± standard deviation	37.3 ± 11.5	40.6 ± 10.7	0.02**
Median	38.1	41.3
Initial symptoms of multiple sclerosis (%)
Isolated optic neuritis	1	2	0.18*
Isolated brainstem dysfunction	0	1
Isolated dysfunction of long tracts	80	87
Combination of symptoms	19	10
Kaplan–Meier estimates of the time (median in years)
From onset of multiple sclerosis to assignment of a disability status score of
DSS 4	0.0	0.0	0.50**
DSS 6	7.5	6.8	0.37**
DSS 7	13.7	12.8	0.92**
From assignment of a disability status score of 4 to
DSS 6	5.4	5.5	0.71**
DSS 7	11.3	12.4	0.65**
From assignment of a disability status score of 6 to
DSS 7	3.6	4.0	0.68**
Kaplan–Meier estimates of the age (median in years) at the time of assignment of a disability status score of
DSS 4	40.0	43.3	0.003**
DSS 6	52.2	54.7	0.09**
DSS 7	58.7	64.4	0.11**
Duration of multiple sclerosis (years)
Mean ± standard deviation	10.9 ± 7.4	9.6 ± 8.4	0.20***

p values are calculated with use of the chi-squared test (^*), the log rank test (^**), or Student's t test (^***).

DSS = Kurtzke Disability Status Scale.

^aDefined according to theLublin and Reingold (1996)classification.

Adapted from Confavreux et al (2000) and Confavreux et al (2005b)

© 2006