Patient-reported Outcome Measurements in a Selective Cohort of Relapsing–remitting Multiple Sclerosis Patients: Relationships with Physical Disability, Cognitive Impairment, and MRI-derived Metrics

The added value of patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) in addition to standard clinical outcome tools in the assessment of relapsing–remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) patients’ status is increasingly recognized. PROMs facilitate the detection of hidden aspects of MS and help to integrate the patient’s subjective experience of health-related quality of life (HRQoL) status and treatment satisfaction in a holistic way. However, the relationship between PROMs and clinical and cognitive status has been scarcely investigated up to now. To investigate the association of PROMs with physical and cognitive disability in a cohort of RRMS patients at initiation of a new disease-modifying treatment. In this cross-sectional bicenter study, 59 consecutive RRMS patients underwent neurological examination with EDSS assessment, comprehensive cognitive tests (BVMT-R, SDMT, CVLT-II) and a set of self-reported questionnaires. Lesion and brain volumes were analyzed and processed by the automated MSmetrix® software (Icometrix®, Leuven, Belgium). Spearman’s correlation coefficient was used to evaluate the association of collected variables. A cross-sectional logistic regression analysis was performed to find baseline correlates of cognitive impairment. Of the 59 RRMS patients (mean age 39 ± 9.8 years, 79.7