The Effect of 4-aminopyridine on the Velocity Versional Dysconjugacy Index (VDI), an Objective Ocular Motor Metric of Dysconjugacy Associated with INO in MS Patients, During High Precision Escalation in Core Body Temperature

The primary goal of the study was to test the hypothesis that the potassium channel blocker, 4-aminopyridine (4-AP), could mitigate a precisely defined heat stress-induced worsening in the ocular motor dysconjugacy associated with internuclear ophthalmoparesis (INO), in patients with Multiple Sclerosis. A substantial portion of the day-to-day disability in living with MS is related to a number of factors that influence conduction slowing and conduction block in demyelinated axonal segments, which correspondingly produce stereotyped, recurrent, and reversible changes in neurologic functional capabilities (Uhthoff's phenomenon).These include thermal stressors, infection, psychological stress, exercise, the menstrual cycle, and metabolic abnormalities. What is germane to all of these provocative factors, is their ability to increase core body temperature in MS patients.