COVID-19 is associated with new symptoms of multiple sclerosis that are prevented by disease modifying therapies

  1. Afagh Garjani
  2. Rodden M Middleton
  3. Rachael Hunter
  4. Katherine A Tuite-Dalton
  5. Alasdair Coles
  6. Ruth Dobson
  7. Martin Duddy
  8. Stella Hughes
  9. Owen R Pearson
  10. David Rog
  11. Emma C Tallantyre
  12. Roshan das Nair
  13. Richard Nicholas
  14. Nikos Evangelou

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Abstract

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  1. Version published to 10.1016/j.msard.2021.102939
  2. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2021.03.08.21253141: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    Institutional Review Board StatementIRB: Standard Protocol Approvals, Registrations, and Patient Consents: Ethical approval for UKMSR studies was obtained from South West-Central Bristol Research Ethics Committee (16/SW/0194).
    Consent: Participants provided informed consent online.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    Software and Algorithms
    SentencesResources
    Statistical Analysis: Data were analysed using IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, version 26 (IBM Corp., Armonk, N.Y., USA; 2019).
    SPSS
    suggested: (SPSS, RRID:SCR_002865)

    Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).

    Results from LimitationRecognizer: We detected the following sentences addressing limitations in the study:
    In addition, most individuals reported that their new MS symptoms resulted in limitation of their daily activities. We wondered whether people had regarded their COVID-19 symptoms, such as fatigue or cognitive problems that can mimic MS symptoms, as deterioration of their MS. Can we truly distinguish MS deterioration from some systemic symptoms of COVID-19? We cannot answer this question with confidence without paraclinical tests, but we found that most individuals with fatigue, memory, or mobility problems also reported other neurological symptoms suggestive of MS. Although more individuals with anxiety or depression reported an MS exacerbation during their COVID-19 infection than individuals without anxiety or depression, the rate of MS exacerbations was above 50% in both groups, suggesting that over-reporting of symptoms linked to anxiety or depression has not driven these results 17.

    Results from TrialIdentifier: We found the following clinical trial numbers in your paper:

    IdentifierStatusTitle
    NCT04354519RecruitingThe United Kingdom Multiple Sclerosis Register Covid-19 Subs…

    Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.

    Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.

    Results from rtransparent:
    • Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • No protocol registration statement was detected.

    About SciScore

    SciScore is an automated tool that is designed to assist expert reviewers by finding and presenting formulaic information scattered throughout a paper in a standard, easy to digest format. SciScore checks for the presence and correctness of RRIDs (research resource identifiers), and for rigor criteria such as sex and investigator blinding. For details on the theoretical underpinning of rigor criteria and the tools shown here, including references cited, please follow this link.

  3. Version published to 10.1101/2021.03.08.21253141v1 on medRxiv