Disability, MRI Lesions and Thickness of Retinal Fibers: Evaluation 15 Years After a First Episode of Demyelination

Knowledge of the evolution of multiple sclerosis (MS) and its long-term prognostic factors is essential to guide the therapeutic management. However, it remains partial and concerns above all data collected during the first years of the disease. The evolution towards disability can only be assessed after a follow-up of more than 10 years and does not depend solely on the initial inflammatory activity of the disease. We propose to realize a standardized clinical assessment, an optical coherence tomography (OCT) and a cerebral MRI 15 years after the first clinical manifestation of the disease.

Clinical and paraclinical assessment will consist in the realization of additional MRI sequences in order to obtain more precise information on cerebral lesions (unconventional parameters). Optical coherence tomography (new generation device) will also be performed on both eyes to describe the thickness of the different layers of the retina. A clinical evaluation will be performed with the Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS).

This study aims:

1. to describe the current clinical situation of patients (e.g. percentage of patients with moderate or severe disability) 2. to explore the associations between MRI parameters, those measured with OCT and clinical characteristics (disability) 3. to explore clinical and paraclinical prognostic factors of pejorative evolution (disability, severe cerebral atrophy, etc.)