Clinical and MRI data.

<p>Expressed are mean values and standard deviation, except for EDSS and FS cerebellar scores, where a median and range are provided.</p><p>9HPT: nine-hole peg test; EDSS: Expanded Disability Status Scale; FS: functional system; GA: glatiramer acetate; GM: grey-matter; IFN: interferon; IM: intramuscular; NA: not applicable; PASAT: Paced Auditory Serial Addition Test; RRMS: relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis; SC: subcutaneous; SDMT: Symbol Digit Modalities Test; T25FW: timed twenty-five foot walk test; WM: white-matter.</p><p>* Group comparisons were performed with Mann-Whitney <i>U</i> tests for age and education; Fisher's exact test for gender distribution; and the General Linear Model with gender and total intracranial volume as covariates for volumes comparisons and with education as covariate for clinical tests performances.</p

Correlations between clinical and MRI factors and outcome measures.

<p>Expressed are Spearman correlation coefficients (R) and respective p values. Significant associations are highlighted in bold.</p><p>9HPT: nine-hole peg test; EDSS: Expanded Disability Status Scale; FS: functional system; GM: grey-matter; NA: not applicable; PASAT: Paced Auditory Serial Addition Test; RRMS: relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis; SDMT: Symbol Digit Modalities Test; T25FW: timed twenty-five foot walk test; WM: white-matter.</p

Cerebellar intracortical and leukocortical lesions.

<p>Axial double inversion recovery images from relapsing-remitting MS patients showing intracortical (long arrows, A and B) and leukocortical lesions (short arrows, C and D).</p

Cell based assay.

<p>Antibodies to aquaporin-4 (AQP4) as detected by binding of patient IgG to HEK293 cells transfected with human full length AQP4 (left column) but not to non-transfected control HEK293 cells (right column). <b>1A and B:</b> Positive AQP4-Ab test in a patient with NMO according to Wingerchuk’s 2006 criteria <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0039372#pone.0039372-WHO1" target="_blank">[29]</a>. <b>2A and B:</b> Negative AQP4-Ab test in a patient with HAM/TSP as defined by World Health Organization criteria <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0039372#pone.0039372-Casseb1" target="_blank">[28]</a>.</p

Demographic and baseline clinical characteristics of patients and controls.

*<p>Median (range); **EDSS  =  Expanded disability status scale score;</p>***<p>CSF Oligoclonal bands =  Two or more cerebrospinal fluid restricted IgG oligoclonal bands.</p><p>HRS  =  high risk syndromes (patients at high risk for conversion into NMO); N.a. =  Not applicable; N.d. =  Not done.</p