Retinal axonal loss in very early stages of multiple sclerosis

Eur J Neurol. 2015 Jul;22(7):1138-41. doi: 10.1111/ene.12722. Epub 2015 Apr 29.

Abstract

Background and purpose: The lack of surrogates of clinical progression has limited the design of neuroprotection trials in multiple sclerosis (MS). Our aim was to study the association between time-domain optical coherence tomography measures and clinical and magnetic resonance imaging outcomes in early MS.

Methods: Forty-three relapsing-remitting MS patients within 1 year of onset were followed for up to 3 years.

Results: The peripapillary retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) decreased annually by 2 μm (95% confidence interval -3.89, -0.11; P = 0.038). The RNFL tended to be associated with normalized normal appearing white matter volume in cross-sectional (P = 0.08) and longitudinal analyses (P = 0.06).

Conclusions: There is substantial RNFL loss even in very early MS. Our data suggest that retinal axonal atrophy is associated with atrophy in global white matter volume in early MS.

Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00501943.

Keywords: magnetic resonance imaging; multiple sclerosis; neuroprotection; optical coherence tomography.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Atrophy / pathology
  • Axons / pathology*
  • Cross-Sectional Studies
  • Disease Progression
  • Follow-Up Studies
  • Humans
  • Magnetic Resonance Imaging
  • Multiple Sclerosis / complications
  • Multiple Sclerosis, Relapsing-Remitting / pathology*
  • Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic
  • Retinal Neurons / pathology*
  • Tomography, Optical Coherence
  • White Matter / pathology

Associated data

  • ClinicalTrials.gov/NCT00501943