EDMUS

Multicentre collaborative studies
coordinated by the EDMUS Coordinating Center

The EDMUS system facilitates the collaboration of neurologists to recruit patients in sufficient number ("critical mass") to answer questions which hitherto have remained unsolved.

Thus, a number of multicentre collaborative studies have been performed using the EDMUS system and coordinated by the EDMUS Coordinating Center. They will be described below.

For current studies, see the "Current Studies" pages.

The KIDMUS study (Kids with Multiple Sclerosis)

The KIDMUS study aimed at analysing retrospectively the course and prognosis of childhood-onset multiple sclerosis. A cohort of 394 patients who had multiple sclerosis with an onset at 16 years of age or younger were identified from the databases of 13 French and Belgian departments of neurology participating in the EDMUS network.

The KIDMUS study has shown that, in comparison with patients with adult-onset disease, those with childhood-onset disease took approximately 10 years longer to reach secondary progression and irreversible disability, but reached these landmarks at an age approximately 10 years younger. Thus, childhood-onset MS should not be considered to have a better prognosis than than adult-onset MS any more on the sole argument of its slower evolution.

Publication:

(Supported by funds from the Société Française de Neurologie, the Région Rhône-Alpes, the Ligue Française contre la Sclérose en Plaques, the Association pour la Recherche sur la Sclérose en Plaques, and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR))