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Purpose : To assess a differential patterns of damage in macular retinal layers in optic neuritis patients.
Methods : A retrospective study was performed in 64 patients who was diagnosed with optic neuritis. Optic neuritis was classified as idiopathic optic neuritis(ON), neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorders(NMOSD), and multiple sclerosis(MS). All patients underwent repeated spectral-domain OCT scans that were analyzed by using automatic segmentation methods of spectral-domain OCT to determine the difference of each layer thickness in 3 groups.
Results : Seventy-two eyes including 36 idiopathic ON eyes, 20 NMOSD eyes, and 16 MS eyes that had an attack of optic neuritis among 64 patients were analyzed. The thicknesses of retinal nerve fiber layer and ganglion cell layer presented more decreased in NMO groups than MS groups that was significantly efficient(p<0.05 by one-way ANOVA, post-hoc Bonferroni) and the other layers makes no difference among 3 groups. Serial changes of thickness in each layers after 6 months to several years from attack was not significant.
Conclusion : Retinal nerve fiber layer and ganglion cell layer are more affected in NMO patients than MS patients. The decreased retinal layer thickness followed by optic neuritis attack might occur in a few months of episode and nearly maintained so long as recurrence is not happened. It is important to maintenance treatment to prevent recurrent episode in NMO patients.
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