From 18 to 22 April 2026, Chicago is hosting the 78th Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Neurology (AAN) — the largest neurology gathering of the year. On Sunday 19 April, Dr. Dominika Šťastná of the Department of Neurology, First Faculty of Medicine, Charles University and General University Hospital in Prague presented a poster from ReMuS with results of an analysis of the long-term effect of cladribine in Czech patients with multiple sclerosis. Cladribine belongs to the family of disease-modifying treatments — it comes in tablet form and, in contrast to most other therapies, follows an unusual regimen: two short treatment courses during the first two years, followed by a longer period without active therapy.
The question of what happens to a patient in year five and beyond has, until recently, lacked a reliable answer in the international literature. The ReMuS analysis showed that, of 481 Czech patients followed for the full five years, half received no further treatment after completing the two courses, a quarter underwent a repeat course of the same medication, and a quarter moved to another therapy. Where the disease returned after several years and the patient was treated again with cladribine, the share of people free of new attacks rose from an initial 41 % to 83 %. Encouraging signals also came from the subgroup of patients who began treatment after the age of 50, among whom further therapy was administered even less often.
These are exactly the kinds of questions the ReMuS registry helps to raise and answer. Analyses like this would not be possible without the cooperation of all fifteen highly specialised multiple sclerosis centres in the Czech Republic, which contribute their patients' data to the registry on an ongoing basis. The poster's title five by five comes from radio communication, where five by five denotes maximum signal strength and clarity — and we like to think that the signal from Czech data comes through to clinical practice just as clearly.
Dr. Dominika Šťastná's poster available for download
Poster P4145, 78th Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Neurology (AAN), Chicago, 18–22 April 2026. Authors: D. Šťastná, M. Vachová, J. Drahota, P. Potužník, R. Ampapa, M. Dufek, M. Grünermelová, E. Kubala Havrdová, J. Houšková, J. Libertinová, A. Martínková, Z. Pavelek, M. Peterka, E. Recmanová, Z. Rous, M. Rous, I. Štětkářová, P. Štourač, I. Woznicová, D. Horáková, G. Fištravec.
You can find the latest posters from the ReMuS register data on the page About us → Latest posters..