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The long-term survival of multiple sclerosis (MS) was studied during 1964-1993 in a cohort of 1614 patents in Finland. Survival to death from the initial MS symptoms was analysed by the life-table method, separately for MS related and all causes of deaths. Survival at 40 years was 64% for MS deaths and 53% for all deaths. Higher proportions of violent deaths and neoplasms were observed among MS patients as compared to the general population, whereas the proportion of cardiovascular causes of death was low. MS-related causes accounted for 70% of the recorded 219 deaths. Favourable survival in MS was associated with relapsing-remitting disease course, age at onset below 30 years and optic neuritis or other sensory symptoms at presentation. We were unable to show any significant effect due to calendar time of diagnosis or gender, as the risk of men was similar (risk ratio [RR] = 1.1, confidence interval [CI] 0.8-1.6) as compared to women.

Several studies have previously provided some albeit weak evidence for linkage or association between chromosome 19q13 and multiple sclerosis (MS) susceptibility. We performed a two-stage association analysis with 19 markers spanning 7 Mb/5.5 cM of 19q13. In stage 1 analysis (135 MS families) allelic and haplotypic associations were found with markers within or close to the ApoE-ApoC subregion. These observations were taken as a hypothesis, which was tested in stage 2 in 125 families. However, none of the initial associations were replicated suggesting that they were most likely due to chance. Linkage analysis was performed in 27 Finnish multiplex families using 10 microsatellites spanning 23 Mb/24 cM of 19q13. DNA was available from 72 MS patients and 150 unaffected relatives. Parametric and non-parametric linkage analyses did not provide evidence for linkage when all families were tested. After stratifying the families according to HLA-DR15 there was weak evidence for linkage to the 19q13.1 subregion in DR15 negative families (LOD(max)=1.8). Taken together these results do not support a major role of chromosome 19q13.2-q13.3 in MS susceptibility among Finnish MS patients, whereas conclusions on the 19q13.1 subregion are less clear and this region requires further study.

Coke samples excavated from LKAB's Experimental Blast Furnace (EBF) at MEFOS in Lulea, Sweden were used to observe the influence of in-furnace reactions on the changes in chemical structure of cokes and their influence on kinetics of CO2 reactivity. In addition to growth of carbon crystallite of coke, alkali concentration particularly potassium and sodium were found to increase as coke descended towards lower part of the EBF. The increase in carbon structure could be linearly related to measured temperature profiles of EBF. Isothermal and non-isothermal TGA measurements are shown to indicate that CO2 reactivity of coke becomes progressively faster as it moves towards lower part of blast furnace. The study suggests that alkali enrichment of cokes in an operating blast furnace could have a strong catalytic effect on the CO2 reactivity. Further research is expected to clarify the mechanisms of influence of coke minerals on reactivity and their implications in a blast furnace. Godkänd; 2004; 20061109 (ysko)