Demographical and clinical characteristics of patients at baseline
| Clinical values | All patients (n=1066) | BMI ≥30 (n=159) | BMI <30 (n=907) | P value | |
| BMI, median (IQR), kg/m² | 24.17 (21.55–27.46) | 33.62 (31.56–36.81) | 23.39 (21.22–25.83) | ||
| sNfL, median (IQR), pg/mL | 11.49 (7.5–21) | 8.84 (6.49–18.87) | 11.87 (7.75–21.09) | 0.029* | |
| Age, median (IQR), years | 31 (26–40) | 33 (28–41) | 31 (25–41) | 0.012* | |
| EDSS, median (IQR) | 1.5 (1–2) | 2 (1–2) | 1.5 (1–2) | 0.001* | |
| No (%) | |||||
| Sex | Male | 315 (29.5) | 42 (26.4) | 273 (30.1) | 0.348† |
| Female | 751 (70.5) | 117 (73.6) | 634 (69.9) | ||
| OCB | Negative | 44 (4.2) | 7 (4.4) | 37 (4.1) | 0.856† |
| Positive | 542 (50.8) | 92 (57.9) | 450 (49.6) | ||
| Unknown | 480 (45) | 60 (37.7) | 420 (53.7) | ||
| T2 lesions | 1–8 | 355 (33.3) | 50 (31.4) | 305 (33.6) | 0.628† |
| >8 | 697 (65.4) | 106 (66.7) | 591 (65.2) | ||
| Unknown | 14 (1.3) | 3 (1.9) | 11 (1.2) | ||
| GD enhancement | No | 593 (55.6) | 87 (54.7) | 506 (55.8) | 0.795† |
| Yes | 426 (40) | 65 (40.9) | 361 (39.7) | ||
| Unknown | 47 (4.4) | 7 (4.4) | 40 (4.5) | ||
| Receiving DMT | No | 755 (70.8) | 111 (69.8) | 644 (71.1) | 0.909† |
| Yes | 287 (26.9) | 43 (27) | 244 (26.9) | ||
| Unknown | 24 (2.3) | 5 (3.2) | 19 (2.1) | ||
| Relapse before BL | 0 | 3 (0.3) | 1 (0.6) | 2 (0.2) | 0.46† |
| 1 | 621 (58.3) | 94 (59.1) | 527 (58.1) | ||
| 2 | 382 (35.8) | 52 (32.7) | 330 (36.4) | ||
| >2 | 60 (5.7) | 12 (7.6) | 48 (5.2) | ||
| Smoking at BL | No | 712 (66.8) | 99 (62.3) | 613 (67.5) | 0.128† |
| Yes | 337 (31.6) | 59 (37.1) | 278 (30.7) | ||
| Unknown | 17 (1.6) | 1 (0.6) | 16 (1.8) | ||
*Mann-Whitney U tests to investigate group differences for metric variables.
† χ2 tests to investigate group differences for categorical variables.
BL, baseline; BMI, body mass index; CIS, clinically isolated syndrome; DMT, Disease-modifying therapy; EDSS, Expanded Disability Status Scale; GD, Gadolinium; OCB, oligoclonal bands; RRMS, relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis; sNfL, serum neurofilament light chain.