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Article History

Received: 30 January 2020

Accepted: 16 November 2020

First Online: 23 November 2020

Ethics approval and consent to participate

: The study was approved by the local ethics committee (study number 4850) of the medical faculty of the Heinrich-Heine University of Düsseldorf (Ethikkommission der Medizinischen Fakultät der Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf) and has been performed complying with the declaration of Helsinki. Written informed consent was obtained from all participants.

: Not applicable.

: We report the following conflicts of interest which are all unrelated to the work presented.Robert Kolbe, Aykut Aytulun, Ann-Kristin Müller declares no conflicts of interest. Marius Ringelstein received speaker honoraria from Novartis, Bayer Vital GmbH, and Ipsen and travel reimbursement from Bayer Schering, Biogen idec, Merz, Genzyme, Teva and Merck. Orhan Aktas received grants from the German Research Foundation (DFG) and the German Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF); grants and personal fees from Bayer HealthCare, Biogen, Genzyme, Novartis, and Teva; and personal fees from Almirall, MedImmune, Merck Serono, and Roche. Alfons Schnitzler received honoraria for speaking/consulting for Medtronic, Boston Scientific, Abbott/SJM, Grünenthal, Abbvie, UCB, MEDA Pharma, GlaxoSmithKline, and Teva. Hans-Peter Hartung has received fees outside this work for serving on steering committees from Biogen Idec, GeNeuro, Sanofi Genzyme, Merck, Novartis Pharmaceuticals, Octapharma, Opexa Therapeutics, Teva Pharmaceuticals, MedImmune, Bayer HealthCare, Forward Pharma, and Roche; fees for serving on advisory boards from Biogen Idec, Sanofi Genzyme, Merck, Novartis Pharmaceuticals, Octapharma, Opexa Therapeutics, Teva Pharmaceuticals, and Roche; and lecture fees from Biogen Idec, Sanofi Genzyme, Merck, Novartis Pharmaceuticals, Octapharma, Opexa Therapeutics, Teva Pharmaceuticals, MedImmune, and Roche. The MS Center at the Department of Neurology in Düsseldorf is supported in part by the Walter and Ilse Rose Foundation. Stefan Jun Groiss received honoraria and/or travel expenses in the past from Medtronic, Abbott Laboratories, Boston Scientific, Rogue Research and UCB. Philipp Albrecht received compensation for serving on Scientific Advisory Boards for Ipsen, Novartis, and Biogen; he received speaker honoraria and travel support from Novartis, Teva, Biogen, Merz Pharmaceuticals, Ipsen, Allergan, Bayer HealthCare, Esai, UCB and Glaxo Smith Kline; he received research support from Novartis, Biogen, Teva, Merz Pharmaceuticals, Ipsen, and Roche. The MS Center at the Department of Neurology in Düsseldorf is supported in part by the Walter and Ilse Rose Foundation by grants to H.-P.H.