New Information on MS Conferences, Treatments, and More From the MSAA

The Multiple Sclerosis Association of America (MSAA) is now offering the latest in MS research news in the newest edition of our online article series, “What’s New in MS Research.” This series of online articles is published periodically and features topics ranging from highlights of major international MS conferences and updates on trials with experimental disease-modifying therapies, to new findings on the development of the disease, symptom management, and quality-of-life issues.

The September 2020 research update

This iteration of “What’s New in MS Research” also features an update on stem cell therapy, shares important insights into patients’ priorities regarding treatment, details how adherence to treatment regimens translates into better outcomes over several years, examines a potential link between childbearing status and onset of progressive MS, reports on sex-based differences in cognitive function in MS, and more.

High blood pressure undertreated in people with MS

In an excerpt from this edition, one study explains that high blood pressure is often undertreated in people with MS:

“Slightly more than one-third of people with MS who met the latest criteria for having hypertension, or high blood pressure, were being treated for the condition, according to an analysis of more than 9,700 patients.

Researchers drew on information from the Multiple Sclerosis Partners Advancing Technology and Health Solutions, or MS PATHS, international database, which is funded by Biogen Inc., to conduct their analysis. Of 9,760 people with recorded blood pressure measurements in the database, 2,718 (27.9%) had at least two readings with systolic blood pressure of 130 mm Hg or higher and/or diastolic blood pressure of 80 mm Hg or higher. In 2017, the American Heart Association defined hypertension as a blood pressure of 130/80 mm Hg or greater.

Only 997 of those 2,718 people, or 36.7%, were receiving treatment with anti-hypertensive medication. However, as blood pressure levels rose, the proportion of people receiving treatment also increased: More than 46% of those with blood pressure values of 140/90 mm Hg or more had been prescribed antihypertensive medication.”

To read more on this study, as well as the other studies presented in What’s New in MS Research, please visit our MSAA’s website.