Collaborative International Research in Clinical and Longitudinal Experience Study in NMOSD.
Cook LJ., Rose JW., Alvey JS., Jolley AM., Kuhn R., Marron B., Pederson M., Enriquez R., Yearley J., McKechnie S., Han MH., Tomczak AJ., Levy M., Mealy MA., Coleman J., Bennett JL., Johnson R., Barnes-Garcia M., Traboulsee AL., Carruthers RL., Lee LE., Schubert JJ., McMullen K., Kister I., Rimler Z., Reid A., Sicotte NL., Planchon SM., Cohen JA., Ivancic D., Sedlak JL., Sand IK., Repovic P., Amezcua L., Pruitt A., Amundson E., Chitnis T., Mullin DS., Klawiter EC., Russo AW., Riley CS., Onomichi KB., Levine L., Nelson KE., Nealon NM., Engel C., Kruse-Hoyer M., Marcille M., Tornes L., Rumpf A., Greer A., Kenneally Behne M., Rodriguez RR., Behne DW., Blackway DW., Coords B., Blaschke TF., Sheard J., Smith TJ., Behne JM., Yeaman MR., Guthy-Jackson Charitable Foundation International Clinical Consortium (GJCF–ICC) None.
Objective: To develop a resource of systematically collected, longitudinal clinical data and biospecimens for assisting in the investigation into neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder (NMOSD) epidemiology, pathogenesis, and treatment. Methods: To illustrate its research-enabling purpose, epidemiologic patterns and disease phenotypes were assessed among enrolled subjects, including age at disease onset, annualized relapse rate (ARR), and time between the first and second attacks. Results: As of December 2017, the Collaborative International Research in Clinical and Longitudinal Experience Study (CIRCLES) had enrolled more than 1,000 participants, of whom 77.5% of the NMOSD cases and 71.7% of the controls continue in active follow-up. Consanguineous relatives of patients with NMOSD represented 43.6% of the control cohort. Of the 599 active cases with complete data, 84% were female, and 76% were anti-AQP4 seropositive. The majority were white/Caucasian (52.6%), whereas blacks/African Americans accounted for 23.5%, Hispanics/Latinos 12.4%, and Asians accounted for 9.0%. The median age at disease onset was 38.4 years, with a median ARR of 0.5. Seropositive cases were older at disease onset, more likely to be black/African American or Hispanic/Latino, and more likely to be female. Conclusions: Collectively, the CIRCLES experience to date demonstrates this study to be a useful and readily accessible resource to facilitate accelerating solutions for patients with NMOSD.