About the Authors
- Tomas Kalincik
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* E-mail: tomas.kalincik@unimelb.edu.au
Affiliation Departments of Medicine and Neurology, University of Melbourne and Royal Melbourne Hospital, Melbourne, Australia
- Timothy Spelman
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Affiliation Department of Neurology, Royal Melbourne Hospital, Melbourne, Australia
- Maria Trojano
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Affiliation Department of Basic Medical Sciences, Neuroscience and Sense Organs, University of Bari, Bari, Italy
- Pierre Duquette
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Affiliation Hôpital Notre Dame, Montreal, Canada
- Guillermo Izquierdo
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Affiliation Hospital Universitario Virgen Macarena, Sevilla, Spain
- Pierre Grammond
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Affiliation Hotel-Dieu de Levis, Quebec, Canada
- Alessandra Lugaresi
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Affiliation MS Center, Department of Neuroscience and Imaging, University ‘G. d’Annunzio’, Chieti, Italy
- Raymond Hupperts
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Affiliation Maaslandziekenhuis, Sittard, The Netherlands
- Edgardo Cristiano
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Affiliation Hospital Italiano, Buenos Aires, Argentina
- Vincent Van Pesch
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Affiliation Cliniques Universitaires Saint-Luc, Brussels, Belgium
- Francois Grand’Maison
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Affiliation Neuro Rive-Sud, Hôpital Charles LeMoyne, Quebec, Canada
- Daniele La Spitaleri
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Affiliation AORN San Giuseppe Moscati, Avellino, Italy
- Maria Edite Rio
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Affiliation Hospital S. Joao, Porto, Portugal
- Sholmo Flechter
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Affiliation Assaf Harofeh Medical Center, Beer-Yaakov, Israel
- Celia Oreja-Guevara
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Affiliation University Hospital San Carlos, IdISSC, Madrid, Spain
- Giorgio Giuliani
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Affiliation Ospedale di Macerata, Macerata, Italy
- Aldo Savino
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Affiliation Consultorio Privado, Buenos Aires, Argentina
- Maria Pia Amato
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Affiliation Department NEUROFARBA, Section of Neurology, University of Florence, Florence, Italy
- Thor Petersen
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Affiliation Kommunehospitalet, Aarhus C, Denmark
- Ricardo Fernandez-Bolanos
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Affiliation Hospital Universitario Virgen de Valme, Seville, Spain
- Roberto Bergamaschi
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Affiliation Neurological Institute IRCCS Mondino, Pavia, Italy
- Gerardo Iuliano
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Affiliation Ospedali Riuniti di Salerno, Salerno, Italy
- Cavit Boz
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Affiliation Karadeniz Technical University, Trabzon, Turkey
- Jeannette Lechner-Scott
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Affiliation John Hunter Hospital, Newcastle, Australia
- Norma Deri
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Affiliation Hospital Fernandez, Buenos Aires, Argentina
- Orla Gray
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Affiliation Craigavon Area Hospital, Portadown, United Kingdom
- Freek Verheul
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Affiliation Groen Hart Ziekenhuis, Gouda, The Netherlands
- Marcela Fiol
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Affiliation FLENI, Buenos Aires, Argentina
- Michael Barnett
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Affiliation Brain and Mind Research Institute, Sydney, Australia
- Erik van Munster
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Affiliation Jeroen Bosch Ziekenhuis, ‘s-Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands
- Vetere Santiago
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Affiliation HIGA Gral, San Martin La Plata, Argentina
- Fraser Moore
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Affiliation Jewish General Hospital, McGill University, Montreal, Canada
- Mark Slee
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Affiliation Flinders University and Medical Centre, Adelaide, Australia
- Maria Laura Saladino
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Affiliation INEBA, Buenos Aires, Argentina
- Raed Alroughani
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Affiliation Amiri Hospital, Kuwait City, Kuwait
- Cameron Shaw
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Affiliation Geelong Hospital, Geelong, Australia
- Krisztian Kasa
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Affiliation Jahn Ferenc Teaching Hospital, Budapest, Hungary
- Tatjana Petkovska-Boskova
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Affiliation Clinic of Neurology Clinical Center, Skopje, Macedonia
- Leontien den Braber-Moerland
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Affiliation Francicus Ziekenhuis, Roosendaal, The Netherlands
- Joab Chapman
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Affiliation Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer, Israel
- Eli Skromne
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Affiliation Hospital Angeles Mexico City, Lomas, Mexico
- Joseph Herbert
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Affiliation New York University Hospital for Joint Diseases, New York, New York, United States of America
- Dieter Poehlau
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Affiliation Multiple Sclerosis Centre Kamillus-Klinik, Asbach, Germany
- Merrilee Needham
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Affiliation Royal North Shore Hospital, Sydney, Australia
- Elizabeth Alejandra Bacile Bacile
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Affiliation Instituto de Neurociencias Cordoba, Cordoba, Argentina
- Walter Oleschko Arruda
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Affiliation Hospital Ecoville, Curitiba, Brazil
- Mark Paine
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Affiliation St Vincent’s Hospital, Melbourne, Australia
- Bhim Singhal
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Affiliation Bombay Hospital Institute of Medical Sciences, Mumbai, India
- Steve Vucic
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Affiliation Westmead Hospital, Sydney, Australia
- Jose Antonio Cabrera-Gomez
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Affiliation Centro Internacional de Restauracion Neurologica, Havana, Cuba
- Helmut Butzkueven
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Affiliations Departments of Medicine and Neurology, University of Melbourne and Royal Melbourne Hospital, Melbourne, Australia, Department of Neurology, Box Hill Hospital and Monash University, Melbourne, Australia
- on behalf of the MSBase Study Group¶
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¶Members of the MSBase Study Group are listed in the Acknowledgments.
Competing Interests
The authors have the following conflicts: TK received travel grants and honoraria from Novartis, Biogen Idec, Sanofi Aventis, Teva and Merck Serono. TS received travel grant from Biogen Idec. MT received honoraria from Biogen-Idec, Bayer-Schering, Sanofi Aventis, Merck-Serono, Teva and Novartis; and research grants from Biogen-Idec, Merck-Serono, and Novartis. GI received honoraria from Biogen-Idec, Novartis, Sanofi, Serono and Teva. AL is a Bayer Schering, Biogen Idec, Genzyme, Merck Serono Advisory Board Member. She received travel and research grants and honoraria from Bayer Schering, Biogen Idec, Merck Serono, Novartis, Sanofi Aventis and Teva, travel and research grants from the Associazione Italiana Sclerosi Multipla and is consultant of Fondazione Cesare Serono. EC received honoraria as scientific advisory board consultant from Biogen-Idec, Bayer-Schering, Merck-Serono, Genzyme and Novartis; has participated in research projects by Merck-Serono, Roche and Novartis. VvP has served on advisory boards for Biogen Idec and Genzyme; received travel grants from Biogen Idec, Bayer Schering, Sanofi Aventis, Merck Serono and Novartis Pharma and honoraria from Biogen Idec, Teva and Novartis Pharma. FGM received honoraria from Biogen Idec, Genzyme, Novartis and Roche. COG received honoraria as scientific advisory board consultant from Biogen-Idec, Bayer-Schering, Merck-Serono, Teva and Novartis; has participated in research projects by Biogen-Idec, GSK, Teva and Novartis. MPA received honoraria as consultant on scientific advisory boards by Biogen-Idec, Bayer-Schering, Merck-Serono, Teva and Sanofi-Aventis; has received research grants by Biogen-Idec, Bayer-Schering, Merck-Serono, Teva and Novartis. TP has recieved funding or speaker honoraria from Biogen Idec, Merck Serono, Novartis, Bayer Schering, Sanofi-Aventis, Roche, and Genzyme. RB received honoraria from Bayer Schering, Biogen, Novartis, Sanofi-Aventis, Teva; research grants from Bayer Schering, Biogen, Novartis, Sanofi-Aventis, Teva; congress and travel expense compensations from Bayer Schering, Biogen, Novartis, Sanofi-Aventis, Teva. GI had travel/accommodations/meeting expenses funded by Bayer Schering, Biogen Idec, Merck Serono, Novartis, Sanofi Aventis, and Teva. JLS’s institution receives support from Biogen Idec, Genzyme Sanofi, Merck Serono and Novartis. FM has participated in clinical trials sponsored by EMD Serono and Novartis. RA received honororia from Biologix, Bayer, Merck Sorono, GSK and Novartis, and served on advisory board for Biologix, Novartis and Merck Sorono. HB has served on scientific advisory boards for Biogen Idec, Novartis and Sanofi-Aventis, has received travel support from Novartis, Biogen Idec and Sanofi Aventis, serves on steering committees for trials conducted by Biogen Idec and Novartis, and has received research support from Merck Serono, Novartis and Biogen Idec. PD, PG, RH, DLS, MER, SF, GG, AS, RFB, CB, ND, OG, FV, MF, MB, VS, MS, MLS, CS, KK, TPB, LdBM, JC, ES, JH, DP, MN, EABB, WOA, MP, SV and JACG did not declare any competing interests. This does not alter the authors’ adherence to all the PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.
Author Contributions
Conceived and designed the experiments: TK HB. Performed the experiments: TS BS EvM TK MT AL EC VVP FGM CO-G MPA RB G. Izquierdo FM RA HB PD G. Iuliano PG RH DLS MER SF GG AS TP RF-B CB JL-S ND OG FV MF MB VS MS MLS CS KK TP-B LdB-M JC ES JH DP MN EABB WOA MP SV JACG. Analyzed the data: TK. Wrote the paper: TK.