About the Authors

Georgios Tsivgoulis

tsivgoulisgiorg@yahoo.gr

Affiliations Second Department of Neurology, “Attikon” Hospital, School of Medicine, University of Athens, Athens, Greece, Department of Neurology, The University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, Tennessee, United States of America, International Clinical Research Center, Department of Neurology, St. Anne’s University Hospital in Brno, Brno, Czech Republic

Aristeidis H. Katsanos

Affiliations Second Department of Neurology, “Attikon” Hospital, School of Medicine, University of Athens, Athens, Greece, Department of Neurology, School of Medicine, University of Ioannina, Ioannina, Greece

Dimitris Mavridis

Affiliations Department of Primary Education, University of Ioannina, Ioannina, Greece, Department of Hygiene and Epidemiology, School of Medicine, University of Ioannina, Ioannina, Greece

Nikolaos Grigoriadis

Affiliation Second Department of Neurology, “AHEPA” University Hospital, Aristotelion University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Macedonia, Greece

Efthymios Dardiotis

Affiliation Department of Neurology, University Hospital of Larissa, University of Thessaly, Larissa, Greece

Ioannis Heliopoulos

Affiliation Department of Neurology, Alexandroupolis University Hospital, Democritus University of Thrace, Alexandroupolis, Greece

Panagiotis Papathanasopoulos

Affiliation Department of Neurology, University of Patras Medical School, Patras, Greece

Theodoros Karapanayiotides

Affiliation Second Department of Neurology, “AHEPA” University Hospital, Aristotelion University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Macedonia, Greece

Constantinos Kilidireas

Affiliation First Department of Neurology, “Eginition” Hospital, School of Medicine, University of Athens, Athens, Greece

Georgios M. Hadjigeorgiou

Affiliation Department of Neurology, University Hospital of Larissa, University of Thessaly, Larissa, Greece

Konstantinos Voumvourakis

Affiliation Second Department of Neurology, “Attikon” Hospital, School of Medicine, University of Athens, Athens, Greece

HELANI (Hellenic Academy of Neuroimmunology)

The complete membership of the author group can be found in the Acknowledgments.

Competing Interests

Dr. Tsivgoulis has received research support (not related to this project) by Teva Pharmaceutical Hellas, Genesis Pharma, Merck Serono and Novartis Hellas. Dr. Grigoriadis has received research support (not related to this project) by Biogen Idec, Novartis, TEVA, Merck Serono, and Genesis Pharma. Dr. Dardiotis has received research support (not related to this project) from Novartis Hellas SA, Genesis Pharma, Bayer Hellas AG, Genzyme, Teva and Merck-Serono. Dr. Dardiotis has also received research support (not related to this project) by Novartis. Dr. Papathanasopoulos has received research support (not related to this project) by Biogen Idec, Novartis, TEVA, Merck Serono, and Genesis Pharma. Dr. Voumvourakis has received research support (not related to this project) by Teva Pharmaceutical Hellas, Merck Serono, Genzyme, Genesis Pharma and Novartis Hellas. All authors have no other relevant declarations relating to employment, consultancy, patents, products in development, marketed products, etc. This does not alter our adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Author Contributions

Conceptualization: GT AHK. Formal analysis: GT AHK DM. Investigation: GT AHK. Methodology: GT AHK DM. Project administration: GT. Resources: AHK DM. Software: AHK. Supervision: GT KV. Validation: GT DM. Visualization: GT AHK DM. Writing – original draft: GT AHK DM. Writing – review & editing: NG ED IH PP TK CK GMH KV.