Vision Test - Optical Coherence Tomography

[sllowe]

Better tests to come folks!  You can also read more on this at the Johns Hopkins Hospital website via a google search.

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Vision: New Scanner May Improve Exams for Multiple Sclerosis

By ERIC NAGOURNEY
Published: October 16, 2007

A machine that can quickly assess the state of nerve fibers in the retina may offer a better way to measure the progression of multiple sclerosis than the M.R.I. examinations now used, researchers said yesterday.

Writing in Neurology, the researchers said the machine used a method known as optical coherence tomography to measure the thickness of the nerve fibers, which shrink as multiple sclerosis progresses.

The lead author of the study, Dr. Peter Calabresi of Johns Hopkins, said the problem with M.R.I. scans for multiple sclerosis patients was that they measured brain shrinkage, a symptom that tends to occur in the later stages of the disease.

A test that shows changes in the retinal nerve fibers would allow doctors to begin treatment earlier, although the changes can signal other problems besides multiple sclerosis. It may also allow researchers developing new drugs against the disease to see how well they work.

The eye scans take just five minutes and are far simpler than M.R.I.’s. They are also much less expensive.

[sllowe]

  This link gives a lot more detailed information into the study, it really sounds promising.

http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/Press_releases/2007/10_15_07.html

Here's a piece I've cut and pasted from the press release:

    Calabresi added that many of the disabilities suffered by MS patients - numbness, tingling, visual impairment, fatigue, weakness and bladder function disturbance - are the result of nerve cell degeneration, so a test that specifically measures nerve cell health is potentially the clearest picture of the status of the disease.

   He cautions that optic nerve damage can point to a number of diseases and is not a unique diagnostic tool for MS. However, he says, it certainly sends up a flag suggesting that MS might be present. . . . . . .
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It's really worth the read.
Be well,
SL

[Rena705]

I asked my Opthamologist about this on November 20th when I saw him and he said that it would really be of no use to me.  He said that it appears to be great for people with early onset of the disease but for someone that had previously been diagnosed...no use.

[T-lynn]

very interesting,I'd be game.Mri's take to darn long.

I just had a brain mri and it did not show optical neuritis but the veps came back showing bilaterial optical neuritis at some time.I know I had it last december in the right eye and in august in the left eye.

They need better advanced test that hopefully will be able to detect this Disease in its earliest stages.

T