Multiple sclerosis patients' Covid-19 catching ratios and disease profiles in Malatya

Multıple Sclerosis Patients' Covid-19 Catching Ratios and Disease Profiles in Malatya Objective: Multiple Sclerosis is a chronic inflammatory disease of the central nervous system, involving processes of demyelination, neuronal damage and axonal loss. Suppressing this inflammatory process and slowing the progression of the disease is one of the main goals of MS treatment. Immunomodulatory / immunosuppressive treatments(DMTs) are used for this purpose. These therapies are known to suppress the immune system and predispose to infections. In our study, it was aimed to evaluate whether MS patients who received immunomodulatory / immunosuppressive treatments in the current COVID-19 pandemic negatively affect them in terms of COVID-19 disease severity, frequency and psychiatric outcomes. Material and Method: Participants consist of MS patients who acquired COVID-19 (group 1) aged 18-65, using DMT with follow-up in neurology outpatient clinic, and the other two groups consist of similar age and gender. One of the other two groups is MS patients who have not had COVID-19(group 2), the other group consisted of patients who had COVID-19 and do not have MS(group 3). MS disease profile (disease duration, last DMT and duration, MS disease clinical form, last treatment side effect information, disability status, ambulation status, radiological involvement of MS) ,Coronavirus Anxiety Scale(CAS) and Beck Depression Inventory(BDI) scales compared between group 1 and 2. COVID-19 disease profile (where the treatment is performed (home / hospital), whether there is a need for intensive care and/or invasive mechanical ventilation during hospitalization, the drugs used in the treatment, whether thorax CT was taken, if there was pneumonic involvement and in terms of which of the COVID-19 symptoms experienced) amongst the 1st and 3rd groups compared. Results: As a result of comparing the MS disease profile of the 1st and 2nd groups and in terms of the COVID-19 disease profile of the 1st and 3rd groups, there was no statistically significant difference in these paired comparison groups (p> 0.05). Conclusion: As a result, it was concluded that DMT use does not increase the severity of COVID-19 and acquiring COVID-19 did not affect the psychiatric outcomes in MS patients, since no statistically significant difference was observed in 2 MS group and 2 COVID-19 group comparison. Keywords: multiple sclerosis, infection, COVID-19, disease modifying treatment