a Severity was graded according to the difference between the EDSS score at the day of maximum worsening and the EDSS score before the onset of the relapse, as: very mild (0 or 1 point), mild (1.5 or 2 points), moderate (2.5 or 3 points), and severe (3.5 points or more).
b Level of significance at 0.003 according to the Bonferroni correction.
c Denotes the chi-square for trend test.
d Here the type of FS (except mental and others) involved in each attack is cross-tabulated against grade of severity.
e Calculated as the time between the date of onset of the first symptom and the date of maximum improvement of the last symptom and categorized as short (≤ 30 days), intermediate (31-60 days) and long (>60 days).
The following factors were not statistically related to severity: age at onset of the attack (<30, 30-39, ≥40), season of onset of the attack, infections in the preceding month, speed of onset (calculated as the time between the date of onset and the date of zenith and categorized as acute if the same day, subacute if 2-3 days, and chronic >3 days), gender, age at first attack (<30, 30-39, ≥40), season of birth and of first attack, oligoclonal bands at CSF examination (present/absent), Link Index (≤ 0.70/>0.70) CSF IgG value (≤ 0.40/>0.40 mg/dl), total number of lesions (0,1-8, ≥9 lesions), and number of gadolinium-enhancing lesions at first brain MRI (0,1, >1 lesions), and recovery after the first relapse (complete/incomplete).