Disability in multiple sclerosis:Improving clinical assessment

Abstract

he findings of this thesis contribute to the resolution of these clinical challenges, specifically: • Clinical assessment of disability can be improved when (i) UEF and ambu- lation are assessed independently (chapter 3), (ii) tasks of ADL are used in conjunction to other measures (chapter 4), and (iii) a value for MCID of improvement for AMSQ is determined (chapter 5) • Multimodal assessment of UEF and mobility, and subgroup analyses im- prove evaluation of treatment effects (chapter 6) • Reference videos reduce the variability of motor functioning assessment (chapter 7) • Detection of change in UEF and mobility can be improved when video-as- sisted composite measures are used in conjunction with conventional measures (chapter 8) • Autoencoders are a valuable method to preserve data privacy in analyses of patient videos (chapter 9). Final conclusion The clinical assessment of MS patients is an exciting field grounded on illustrious historical foundations and deepened through contemporary technological innovation. Further improvement and integration into multidisciplinary data infrastructures will eventually lead to a better understanding and control of MS, which ultimately improves the quality of the life of our patients