Footnotes

• Contributors Conception and design of study: Drs Palace and Kitley; Data collection: Drs Kitley, Leite and Elsone; Data analysis: Drs Kitley and Palace; Drafting of manuscript: Drs Kitley and Palace; Critical appraisal and revision of manuscript: all authors.

• Competing interests JK is supported by the NHS National Specialised Commissioning Group for Neuromyelitis Optica and has received travel grants from Biogen Idec, Novartis and Teva and speaker honoraria from Novartis. MIL is involved in AQP4 and MOG antibody testing, is supported by the NHS National Specialised Commissioning Group for Neuromyelitis Optica and by the NIHR Oxford Biomedical Research Centre and has received speaking honoraria from Biogen Idec and travel grants from Novartis. LE is supported by the NHS National Specialised Commissioning Group for Neuromyelitis Optica and has received travel grants from Novartis and Teva. AJ is supported by the NHS National Specialised Commissioning Group for Neuromyelitis Optica. JP has received unrestricted grants and support for scientific meetings and scientific advisory honorariums from Merk Serono, TEVA, Biogen, Bayer Schering and Novartis, has held MS society grants, is a clinical lead for the UK DOH RSS and is supported by the NHS National Specialised Commissioning Group for Neuromyelitis Optica.

• Ethics approval Oxfordshire REC.

• Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.