The following is a summary of “Impact of menopause on relapse rate and disability level in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS): a systematic review and meta-analysis,” published in the September 2023 issue of Neurology by Shahraki et al.
Researchers performed a retrospective study to estimate the impact of menopause on relapse rate and disability status in women with MS.
They systematically searched PubMed, Scopus, EMBASE, Web of Science, and Google Scholar on January 1st, 2023, with two independent researchers. Conference abstracts and references of included studies were reviewed. Data on total participants, first author, publication year, country, disease details, annual relapse rate, and pre-and post-menopause Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) were recorded.
The results showed that the literature search yielded 1,024 records. After evaluating 21 full texts, 4 studies were included in the meta-analysis. Mean Annual Relapse Rate (ARR) before menopause ranged from 0.21 to 0.37; after menopause, it went from 0.08 to 0.13. ARR’s Standardized Mean Difference (SMD) varied between -1.04 and -0.29, with a pooled SMD of -0.52 (95% CI: -0.88, -0.15; I2 = 73.6%, P=0.02). Mean Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) before menopause ranged from 1.5 to 2; after menopause, it went from 2 to 3.1. The SMD of EDSS change was in the range of 0.46 to 0.71, with a pooled SMD estimated as 0.56 (95% CI: 0.38, 0.73; I2 = 0, P=0.4).
They concluded menopause is associated with relapse rate reduction but not disease-related disability in women with MS.
Source: bmcneurol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12883-023-03332-1
