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Multiple sclerosis is a complex, autoimmune-mediated disease of the central nervous system characterized by inflammatory demyelination and axonal/neuronal damage. The approval of various disease-modifying therapies and our increased understanding of disease mechanisms and evolution in recent years have significantly changed the prognosis and course of the disease. This update of the Multiple Sclerosis Therapy Consensus Group treatment recommendation focuses on the most important recommendations for disease-modifying therapies of multiple sclerosis in 2021. Our recommendations are based on current scientific evidence and apply to those medications approved in wide parts of Europe, particularly German-speaking countries (Germany, Austria, Switzerland)., (© 2021. The Author(s).)

Background: Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is a severe, life-limiting neurodegenerative disease. A disease-modifying and approved therapy with nusinersen has been available in Germany since July 2017. Gene therapies offer another promising treatment option through a once in a lifetime administration. In May 2019 a gene replacement therapy for the treatment of SMA was approved for the first time by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). An application for approval in Europe has been submitted and is currently pending., Objective: This consensus paper was compiled at the invitation of the German Society for Muscular Diseases (DGM) with the participation of all potential German neuromuscular treatment centers, the German section of the Society for Pediatric Neurology (GNP) and with the involvement of the medical scientific advisory board of the DGM. The aim was to define and establish the necessary prerequisites for a safe and successful application of the new gene replacement therapy in clinical practice., Conclusion: Gene replacement therapy with onasemnogene abeparvovec has the potential to significantly influence the course of SMA. Long-term data on sustainability of effects and possible adverse effects of gene replacement therapy are not yet available. The application of this innovative therapy must be carried out in specialized and appropriately qualified treatment centers under strict safety conditions. This article makes suggestions for the necessary framework conditions and gives recommendations for a systematic pretreatment and posttreatment assessment schedule under gene therapy. The effectiveness and safety of the therapy should be systematically documented in an industry-independent and disease-specific register.

Providing expert opinion in the context of smell disorders is often challenging, not only with regard to general aspects of providing an expert opinion but particularly with regard to chemosensory testing. Currently there is no consensus which chemosensory test should be selected and how they should be executed. This positions paper from Committee on Olfaction and Gustation of the German Society of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery aims to give concrete recommendations for chemosensory testing for providing expert opinion for smell disorders with regard to the selection and execution of these test., (© Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.)

Despite great advances in the pathophysiology and etiology of myocarditis, the clinical diagnosis of myocarditis in daily clinical practise remains challenging. Often the diagnosis was not clear because of the heterogeneity of clinical symptoms and the lack of guidelines for adequate diagnostic requirements and consecutive treatment options. The European Society of Cardiology (ESC) Working Group on Myocardial and Pericardial Diseases established a working group of experts to improve the diagnosis and management of myocarditis and to provide a common consensus statement as a reference for future registries and controlled trials. The goal was to bridge the gap between clinical- and tissue-based diagnosis by formulating a concept concerning essential diagnostics and treatment of these patients that would be accepted across Europe. Only in this manner is it possible to establish a basis for national and international registries and double-blind randomized treatment trials for the etiologically differentiated treatment of myocarditis, which appear promising due to numerous studies in recent years. In this paper, two members from the expert working group summarize the most important aspects of this position paper on the etiology, diagnosis, management, and treatment of myocarditis, which were published in the July 2013 issue of European Heart Joumal.

The process of reviewing the European pharmaceutical legislation resulted in a codex, which contains two new instruments related to marketing authorisation of biological medicines: Plasma Master File (PMF) and Vaccine Antigen Master File (VAMF). In the manufacture of plasma derivatives (e. g. coagulation factors, albumin, immunoglobulins), usually the same starting material, i. e. a plasma pool, is used for several products. In the case of vaccines, the same active substance, i.e. vaccine antigen, may be included in several combination vaccine products. The intention behind the introduction of PMF and VAMF was to avoid unnecessary and redundant documentation, and to improve and harmonise assessment by means of procedures for certification of master files on the community level.

This article (which is dedicated to the German professor Alfred Haverkamp) focuses on the expulsions of Jews in Europe during the Middle Ages. Several topics are discussed, including how the Prussian King Frederick II wrote letters protecting Jews after his ancestor Rupert II expelled the Prussian Jews, how the French Kings Philip II, August, and Louis VIII all mistreated the Jews when they first came into power, and how Jewish communities and Jewish individuals were often expelled without warning or reason during the Middle Ages.

The article presents information about a research program to be released by a European committee in 2007. The program is intended to facilitate European users' access to digital information, as well as to increase digital library user rates. An additional goal is noted as the sharing of digital information between all European libraries. A call for papers is announced for the period between June 2007 and October 4, 2007.

Copyright of Historia Ecclesiastica is the property of Vydavatelstvo Presovskej Univerzity and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper discusses the ecdesiological insights gained in the consultation on church and church fellowship between representatives of the Community of Protestant Churches in Europe (CPCE) and the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. In the introduction, the formation of this conversation and its significance for the ecumenical movement in Europe is discussed. Then the approach in the understanding of the church is reflected on the differentiation of the foundation, shape and mission of the church, which proceeds from the implicit reference of the CPCE church study to the understanding of the church in Lume n Ge n tium. The explication is an ecumenical learning process that points the way for further conversations on ecclesiology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to analyze the image of Europe in the non-fictional texts of Miroslav KRLEŽA and Karl-Markus GAUß, considering the role of the writer as a cultural mediator. Particular attention is paid to the role of Karl-Markus GAUß as central for the reception of works of the Croatian classical writer Miroslav KRLEŽA in the German-speaking area, as well as to his essays Tinte ist bitter. Literarische Porträts aus Barbaropa (1998) and Die Vernichtung Mitteleuropas (1991). The paper also presents a critical attitude towards the European past common to both the authors, especially with regard to the position of both of them on discursive concepts of Central Europe and Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Before the nineteenth century, philosophical works by women are scarcely documented, if at all, almost everywhere in the world. However, this fact has so far caused little concern to the vast majority of authors of the most diverse narratives of histories of philosophy worldwide. Due to a predominantly masculine perspective in the discipline, the exclusion of women from the canon of the history of philosophy continues to be repeated to this day. This tendency also affects the endeavours since the 1980s to reconstruct and document non-European philosophical traditions as well as to integrate them into a global discourse. A contemporary revision of the canon of the history of philosophy, however, cannot take place solely from an intercultural or global perspective; it must also address and correct patriarchal structures of exclusion - in all regions of the world. The paper discusses the specific challenges of reconstructing the history of women philosophers outside of Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]