Episode 125: Understanding Major Changes to New McDonald Criteria for Multiple Sclerosis

Daniel Ontaneda, MD, PhD

Episode 125 of the NeurologyLive^® Mind Moments^® podcast is now live! Scroll down to listen or click here to subscribe on your favorite streaming service.

The Mind Moments podcast features exclusive interviews with leaders in the field discussing the latest research and disease management strategies across the breadth of neurology, including epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson disease, dementia, sleep disorders, and more.

In this episode, "Understanding Major Changes to New McDonald Criteria for Multiple Sclerosis," Daniel Ontaneda, MD, PhD, a staff member of the Cleveland Clinic Mellen Center for Multiple Sclerosis, provided an in-depth overview on the new McDonald criteria to diagnose multiple sclerosis (MS), which was presented at the 40th Congress of the European Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis (ECTRIMS). Ontaneda, who also serves as an assistant professor of neurology, discussed the most notable changes to the criteria and how it may help towards improving rates of misdiagnosis and missed diagnosis. He spoke on the incorporation of new biomarkers, such as central vein sign and paramagnetic rim lesions, and the ability to diagnose MS in stages before clinical presentation shows. Furthermore, Ontaneda gave some perspective on the areas of the new criteria that will take some time to adjust to, as well as how these criteria may change the philosophical perspective of the disease as a whole.

The stories featured in this week's Neurology News Minute, which will give you quick updates on the following developments in neurology, are further detailed here:

• Potential Regulatory Submission for Inebilizumab in Myasthenia Gravis Following Positive Phase 3 MINT Data
• Parkinson Agent Tavapadon Meets Primary and Secondary End Points as Monotherapy in Phase 3 TEMPO-1 Trial
• Sage Therapeutics and Biogen Officially Announce Ending of SAGE-324 Program in Essential Tremor

EPISODE BREAKDOWN

• 1:10 – Focus and direction of new diagnostic criteria
• 3:00 – Overviewing specific changes to McDonald criteria
• 10:50 – Approach to diagnosing pre-MS; treating radiologically isolated syndrome earlier
• 12:55 – Neurology News Minute
• 15:10 – Incorporation of new biomarkers, central vein sign, paramagnetic rim lesions, OCT
• 21:45 – Unanswered questions/challenges left out of the diagnostic criteria

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