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Eye Care Archive (Expert Forum)
optic neuritis
Our Ask A Doctor Ophthalmology Forum is where you can post your question and receive a personal answer from physicians affiliated with the American Academy of Ophthalmology.
optic neuritis
by wantingtobeok, May 11, 2007 12:00AM
I am 32 years old, have RA, and need some information. About 14 months ago I expereinced unilateral boring pain in the R eye, exac by movement, and followed in 2-3 days with vision loss, decreased color saturation, and decreased light perception with worsening of vision in bright light. Saw ophtho and told was "legally blind" in that eye, given prednisone. Pain got better and after 2-3 weeks vision slowly improved. i was using Enbrel at the time and the consenses was enbrel-induced optic neuritis, so I stopped the med. Then, about 12 months ago, same thing occurred in L eye. This time I have seen Neuro-ophtho, who said he could see changes of optic neuritis in both eyes, and that I have to have MRI and LP to eval possible MS. No other neurologic symptoms. Currently on high-dose oral steroids for joints/ eyes. Visual acuity is improved but still blurry, still with poor color perception (L>R) and worse in light or when I get hot. Have seen occasional bright flashes, no VEP done, but VF showed only a small blind spot in L eye. It makes no sense to me that I could possibly have both RA and optic neuritis, and this all seems not to make any sense to me. Please advise, and tell me what I should do about the LP (I have no issue with having the MRI). I just think that if MRI is normal, I can skip LP. Any help is appreciated.
Doctor's Answer
by Forum-OD-MP, May 11, 2007 12:00AM
' It makes no sense to me that I could possibly have both RA and optic neuritis'
why not? makes sense to me. you could very easily have both.
you need the lumbar puncture, regardless of what the mri showed or didnt show. having multiple cases of ON *is not* normal. something tis wrong. you need to keep getting testing until your docs figure out what is causing the ON, or they exhaust all testing and tell you they dont know.
why not? makes sense to me. you could very easily have both.
you need the lumbar puncture, regardless of what the mri showed or didnt show. having multiple cases of ON *is not* normal. something tis wrong. you need to keep getting testing until your docs figure out what is causing the ON, or they exhaust all testing and tell you they dont know.
