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Although the role of subspecialty management has been established in various neurological conditions, the impact of neuroimmunology subspecialty (NIS) management on NMOSD patient outcomes remains inadequately explored.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>A retrospective analysis was conducted on 188 NMOSD patients, stratifying them into groups based on their management pathway: initial visit in NIS, initial visit in non-neuroimmunology subspecialty (NNIS), NNIS-to-NIS transfer, and last visit in either NIS or NNIS. Primary outcome measures included annualized relapse rate (ARR), Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) scores.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      Patients initially presenting to NIS IV demonstrated a lower ARR (median: 0.39, IQR: 0.31\u20130.51, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.33\u20130.45) compared to other groups at last follow-up. For transfer patients, ARR significantly decreased post-transfer (\n                      <jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\n                      \u2009&lt;\u20090.001). Patients in NIS IV group had the lowest EDSS scores (median: 1.3, IQR: 1.0\u20132.0, 95% CI: 1.0\u20132.0) compared to other groups. Both initial presentation to NIS (OR:0.50, 95%CI:0.26\u20130.97,\n                      <jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\n                      \u2009=\u20090.039) and subsequent transfer to NIS management (OR:0.41, 95%CI:0.21\u20130.81,\n                      <jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\n                      \u2009=\u20090.010) were associated with lower EDSS scores.\n                    <\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Conclusion<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>NIS management significantly improves outcomes in NMOSD patients, as evidenced by lower relapse rates, reduced disability scores, and higher utilization of advanced therapeutics.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1186\/s13023-026-04443-x","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,12]],"date-time":"2026-06-12T03:36:54Z","timestamp":1781235414000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/springer_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["The role of neuroimmunology subspecialty in disease management of patients with neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder"],"prefix":"10.1186","volume":"21","author":[{"given":"Binbin","family":"Xue","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Jia","family":"Li","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Dewei","family":"Xie","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Xu","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Junhui","family":"Xia","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Xiang","family":"Li","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-6055-5903","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Jie","family":"Lin","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"297","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,12]]},"reference":[{"issue":"7","key":"4443_CR1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"631","DOI":"10.1056\/NEJMra1904655","volume":"387","author":"DM Wingerchuk","year":"2022","unstructured":"Wingerchuk DM, Lucchinetti CF. 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