Study design and patients

Patients included in this study were recruited at the Girona Neuroimmunology and Multiple Sclerosis Unit of Dr. Josep Trueta University Hospital (Girona, Spain) and in the Immunology and Neurology Departments of Ramón y Cajal University Hospital (Madrid, Spain). A sample of 46 relapse-onset MS patients over 18 years old was included. Twenty-six MS patients showed Gd+ lesions in their magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) (Gd+), whereas 20 patients were not characterized by this clinical output (Gd−). CSF and plasma samples were collected at the diagnosis of the disease. MRI acquisition was made within 30 days from the sample collection. All patients were naïve of disease-modifying drugs. Demographic data including sex ratio and age, as well as clinical and radiological outputs, are depicted in Table 1. The Ethics Committee and the Committee for Clinical Investigation from Dr. Josep Trueta University Hospital approved the protocol employed in this study. All participants signed a written informed consent.

Demographic data of the study cohort

Gd− patients without gadolinium-enhanced lesions, Gd+ patients with gadolinium-enhanced lesions; SD standard deviation, OCBG oligoclonal IgG bands; N/P negative/positive, LS_OCMB lipid-specific oligoclonal IgM bands