Long-term treatment with prolonged-release fampridine (Ampyra) offered persistent clinical and subjective benefits in walking function in gait-impaired patients with multiple sclerosis (MS), researchers reported.
In an extension study of the FAMPKIN trial, MS patients had an 11.5% improvement in walking speed, a 10.7% improvement in endurance, and a 6.1-point improvement in self-perceived ambulatory function over baseline during the first open-label year of treatment, according to Linard Filli, PhD, of University Hospital Zurich, and colleagues.
Those effects remained stable during a follow-up year of double-blind controlled treatment, with improvements in those respective endpoints of 13.1%, 12%, and 7.4 points compared with placebo, they reported online in Neurology.
Overall, patients had significant improvement in the Timed 25-Foot Walk (T25FW) (P=0.0274), the 6-Minute Walk Test (6MWT) (P=0.0002), and the 12-item MS Walking Scale (MSWS-12) (P=0.0483) over those two years, they added.
In an email, Filli noted that one of the most interesting findings of the study was the fact that a third of those who initially had poor improvement with the drug had a much different response after two additional years on the medication.
The rest of the article is here: http://www.medpagetoday.com/mastery-...ry-in-ms/63046
In an extension study of the FAMPKIN trial, MS patients had an 11.5% improvement in walking speed, a 10.7% improvement in endurance, and a 6.1-point improvement in self-perceived ambulatory function over baseline during the first open-label year of treatment, according to Linard Filli, PhD, of University Hospital Zurich, and colleagues.
Those effects remained stable during a follow-up year of double-blind controlled treatment, with improvements in those respective endpoints of 13.1%, 12%, and 7.4 points compared with placebo, they reported online in Neurology.
Overall, patients had significant improvement in the Timed 25-Foot Walk (T25FW) (P=0.0274), the 6-Minute Walk Test (6MWT) (P=0.0002), and the 12-item MS Walking Scale (MSWS-12) (P=0.0483) over those two years, they added.
In an email, Filli noted that one of the most interesting findings of the study was the fact that a third of those who initially had poor improvement with the drug had a much different response after two additional years on the medication.
The rest of the article is here: http://www.medpagetoday.com/mastery-...ry-in-ms/63046
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