Tysabri may be an option for children with MS

[MSUK]

Tysabri may be an option for children with Multiple Sclerosis

Off-label treatment with natalizumab (Tysabri) for 20 children with severe multiple sclerosis reduced relapses and brain lesions seen on MRI scans, a retrospective analysis found.

The mean annualized relapse rate while on natalizumab in these patients was 0.4, compared with 3.77 before starting the drug (P<0.001), according to Barbara Kornek, MD, of Austria's Medical University of Vienna, and colleagues.

Also, new T2/fluid attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) lesions declined from a mean of 7.8 before natalizumab to 0.5 on the drug (P=0.001), the researchers reported online in JAMA Neurology.

But the treatment was not without adverse events, Kornek and colleagues noted. Half the patients experienced some type of clinical event, including one case each of severe asthenia, laryngeal edema, and anaphylaxis. Two had recurrent infections, although it was not clear that natalizumab was responsible..... Read More - http://www.ms-uk.org/index.cfm/paediatric