Investigation of the Retinal Nerve Fiber Layer in Multiple Sclerosis Using Spectral Domain Optical Coherence Tomography

Czech version

Authors: M. Michalec ¹; P. Praksová ²; M. Hladíková ²; V. Matušková ¹; E. Vlková ¹; P. Štourač ²; L. Michalcová ¹
Authors‘ workplace: LF MU a FN Brno Oční klinika ¹; LF MU a FN Brno Neurologická klinika ²
Published in: Cesk Slov Neurol N 2016; 79/112(1): 41-50
Category: Original Paper

Overview

Background:
Optic neuritis (ON) is an inflammatory optic nerve disease that is strongly associated with multiple sclerosis (MS). Axonal damage in the optic nerve is manifested as retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) deficits that can be detected by the optical coherence tomography (OCT).

Aim:
To characterize the inner retinal layer changes in patients with clinically isolated syndrome (CIS) and MS while utilizing the spectral domain OCT (SD-OCT) and a comparative sample of healthy controls.

Participants and methods:
30 eyes of 15 patients with CIS, 104 eyes of 52 MS patients with or without history of ON and 30 eyes of healthy patients that underwent SD-OCT examination. Results: CIS ON eyes had lower mean RNFL thickness (92.1 µm; p = 0.007) compared to the comparative sample (100.8 µm). The mean RNFL thickness decrease (97.5 µm; p = 0.25) was not detected in the eyes unaffected by CIS ON. Reduction of the mean RNFL thickness was not found in the post-ON eyes compared to unaffected eyes of CIS patients (p = 0.14). Eyes of MS patients with a history of ON showed significantly reduced mean RNFL thickness (73.1µm; p < 0.001) compared to the comparative sample (100.8 µm). Patients with MS with no history of ON also had lower mean RNFL thickness (91.4µm; p = 0.002). Statistically significant RNFL thinning was detected in the ON eyes compared to unaffected eyes (p = 0.04).

Conclusions:
SD-OCT is a promising tool designed to detect subclinical changes in RNFL thickness in patients with MS.

Key words:
multiple sclerosis – optic neuritis – clinically isolated syndrome – optical coherence tomography – retinal nerve fiber layer

The authors declare they have no potential conflicts of interest concerning drugs, products, or services used in the study.

The Editorial Board declares that the manuscript met the ICMJE “uniform requirements” for biomedical papers.

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