Validation of 1-year predictive score of long-term response to interferon-β in everyday clinical practice multiple sclerosis patients.

Background and purpose The Rio score ( RS) and the modified Rio score ( MRS) are two scoring systems that can identify the early predictive factors of disability progression in relapsing−remitting multiple sclerosis ( RRMS) patients treated with interferon-β ( IFN-β). The objective of the study was to validate the usefulness of the RS and MRS in a large cohort of multiple sclerosis patients treated with IFN-β in daily clinical practice. Methods The analysis included a cohort of RRMS patients treated with different formulations of IFN-β for at least 1 year. The RS and MRS were used to classify the patients after 1 year of treatment. Multivariate analysis was performed to identify predictive variables of suboptimal response at 5 years, defined as Expanded Disability Status Scale confirmed progression or switching to a second-line therapy. Results Sixty-nine of 416 included patients were considered as suboptimal responders at 5-year evaluation. The possible score range was 0-3. A higher risk of suboptimal response was found for RS and MRS in the presence of ≥2 scores (hazard ratio 3.0, P = 0.002, and hazard ratio 5.0, P < 0.0001, respectively). Conclusions Our study confirmed, in a daily clinical setting, that MRS had a better specificity and accuracy than RS in identifying the patients who will have a poor response to long-term IFN-β treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]