Title |
HIV and lower risk of multiple sclerosis: beginning to unravel a mystery using a record-linked database study
|
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Published in |
Journal of neurology, neurosurgery and psychiatry, August 2014
|
DOI | 10.1136/jnnp-2014-307932 |
Pubmed ID | |
Authors |
Julian Gold, Raph Goldacre, Hubert Maruszak, Gavin Giovannoni, David Yeates, Michael Goldacre |
Abstract |
Even though multiple sclerosis (MS) and HIV infection are well-documented conditions in clinical medicine, there is only a single case report of a patient with MS and HIV treated with HIV antiretroviral therapies. In this report, the patient's MS symptoms resolved completely after starting combination antiretroviral therapy and remain subsided for more than 12 years. Authors hypothesised that because the pathogenesis of MS has been linked to human endogenous retroviruses, antiretroviral therapy for HIV may be coincidentally treating or preventing progression of MS. This led researchers from Denmark to conduct an epidemiological study on the incidence of MS in a newly diagnosed HIV population (5018 HIV cases compared with 50 149 controls followed for 31 875 and 393 871 person-years, respectively). The incidence rate ratio for an HIV patient acquiring MS was low at 0.3 (95% CI 0.04 to 2.20) but did not reach statistical significance possibly due to the relatively small numbers in both groups. Our study was designed to further investigate the possible association between HIV and MS. |
X Demographics
Geographical breakdown
Country | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
United Kingdom | 18 | 17% |
United States | 16 | 15% |
Spain | 7 | 7% |
Australia | 3 | 3% |
Canada | 2 | 2% |
Germany | 2 | 2% |
Ireland | 2 | 2% |
Belgium | 2 | 2% |
Netherlands | 1 | <1% |
Other | 3 | 3% |
Unknown | 48 | 46% |
Demographic breakdown
Type | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Members of the public | 71 | 68% |
Scientists | 17 | 16% |
Practitioners (doctors, other healthcare professionals) | 14 | 13% |
Science communicators (journalists, bloggers, editors) | 2 | 2% |
Mendeley readers
Geographical breakdown
Country | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Portugal | 1 | <1% |
Norway | 1 | <1% |
United Kingdom | 1 | <1% |
Iran, Islamic Republic of | 1 | <1% |
Spain | 1 | <1% |
Unknown | 102 | 95% |
Demographic breakdown
Readers by professional status | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Researcher | 20 | 19% |
Student > Ph. D. Student | 17 | 16% |
Student > Bachelor | 10 | 9% |
Student > Doctoral Student | 8 | 7% |
Other | 8 | 7% |
Other | 25 | 23% |
Unknown | 19 | 18% |
Readers by discipline | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Medicine and Dentistry | 44 | 41% |
Agricultural and Biological Sciences | 9 | 8% |
Neuroscience | 8 | 7% |
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology | 6 | 6% |
Immunology and Microbiology | 5 | 5% |
Other | 11 | 10% |
Unknown | 24 | 22% |