Monosymptomatic unilateral optic neuritis is a common first manifestation of multiple sclerosis. Abnormal T cell responses to myelin components including myelin basic protein (MBP), proteolipid protein (PLP), and myelin-associated glycoprotein (MAG) have been implicated in the pathogenesis of multiple sclerosis. Antigen-reactive T helper type 1 (Th1)-like cells that responded by interferon gamm...

T HE INVESTMENT of the National Eye Institute in the Optic Neuritis Treatment Trial continues to pay dividends. In this issue of the ARCHIVES, the Optic Neuritis Study Group reports on the risk of developing multiple sclerosis (MS) after an attack of isolated optic neuritis. This issue is of great importance to patients and physicians and, as the authors acknowledge, has been addressed in prior...

PURPOSE To report the clinical features and outcome of a series of children with optic neuritis. METHODS We reviewed the medical records of patients up to 16 years old with optic neuritis. Group 1 comprised children seen up to two weeks after the onset of visual loss; Group 2 comprised patients already harboring optic atrophy. RESULTS There were 15 boys and 12 girls. The mean age was 10.9 y...

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is an autoimmune disease that can have detrimental effects on many different systems in the body, including the central nervous system. Neuropsychiatric SLE (NPSLE) refers to several different neurological and/or behavioral clinical syndromes, and has been reported as having a prevalence rate of approximately 30−40%, while manifestation of myelitis or optic ne...

The diagnosis of optic neuritis and particularly retrobulbar optic neuritis when atypical and not responsive to corticosteroid treatment may need to be revised. This is now especially so in male patients who should be questioned regarding their taking a phosphodiasterase-5 inhibitor in particular Viagra. The case history of such a patient is presented who sustained posterior ischaemic optic neu...

The aim of this paper is to compare diameter of healthy and affected optic nerve determined by ultrasound with brain lesions in acute retrobulbar neuritis in patients with multiple sclerosis. In this prospective study 20 patients with multiple sclerosis and acute retrobulbar neuritis were examined. Optic nerve diameter was measured by ultrasound. Brain lesions were detected by magnetic resonanc...

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is considered to be an autoimmune disease of the central nervous system (CNS) that in many patients first presents clinically as optic neuritis. The relationship of optic neuritis to MS is not well understood. We have generated novel T cell receptor (TCR) transgenic mice specific for myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein (MOG). MOG-specific transgenic T cells are not delet...

IMPORTANCE Retrospective studies have demonstrated disparate outcomes following acute optic neuritis in individuals of African descent compared with individuals of white race/ethnicity. However, published analyses of the prospectively collected Optic Neuritis Treatment Trial (ONTT) data identified no association between worse visual outcomes and black race/ethnicity. OBJECTIVES To investigate t...

One hundred and one of 146 patients presenting with isolated idiopathic optic neuritis, previously reviewed in 1978, were reassessed clinically, and retyped for HLA antigens and Factor B alleles, after a mean follow-up of 11.6 years. Fifty eight patients (57%) had developed multiple sclerosis at the time of reassessment in the present study, of whom 51 (88%) had clinically definite disease. Thi...

110 cases of optic neuritis were prospectively studied. 62 (56%) developed multiple sclerosis, 13 were lost to survey. However, eight of these had recurrent episodes of optic neuritis. If recurrent episodes of optic neuritis are accorded the same significance as demyelination elsewhere in the CNS, then the incidence of multiple sclerosis in the series rose to 71%, similar to that predicted on a...