Optic Neuritis

[stephieZ22]

I have had black dots in my field of vision for a month now. They get worse when I go outside or look at a white screen. They move. I had an MRI of the brain WITHOUT contrast 2 weeks ago and I wanted to know if

Optic Neuritis can be seen on an MRI without contrast?
Do these black dots that move when my eyeball moves ever go away?
I have no pain, blindness, or distopia, can it still be considered opitc neuritis?


Every bit of help and precious knowledge would be greatly appreciated.

THANK YOU

[cubbiesfan918]

Sometimes you can see Optic Neuritis on the MRI without contrast. I had my first one 2 weeks prior to Dx; however, had ON last August. The Neuro stated that he was able to see a lesion in the optic nerve area that he hadn't seen before.

I agree with immisceo that ON was shades of dark vs spots and happened within days. In my experience, the upper part of vision turned dark, then it moved to middle and within 3 days I was completely blind in my right eye. Since I was pregnant at the time, I wasn't able to take steroids  but it was improved within a few weeks and is nearly back to normal today.

Sorry you are here, but the posters on this forum are remarkable. Good luck and best wishes to you.

[Footsie3110]

Sounds like what I have at the moment. Optometrist did a retinal scan and said I have "lesions on the retina" and referred me to a Neuro-Opthamologist who performed more tests and blood tests then diagnosed them as "cotton wool spots" and said it's a rare side effect of my DMD, which I have now stopped taking until this clears up. Mine are definitely more noticeable when I go outside, they are in both eyes (each eye has it's own spots in a different location - about 12 of them in total) and always visible and make reading difficult. I have had almost daily headaches from the eye strain. It's worse when I look at grass for some reason, so when I'm outside I have to keep my focus on the distance.

If you are able to, maybe go and see an optometrist as these will be clearly visible in a retinal scan (and cheaper than an MRI! LOL).

[immisceo]

This doesn't sound like optic neuritis. A typical course of optic neuritis comes on over the period of days (getting worse over that period) and then typically resolves to a great extent a within roughly a month. It manifests as scotoma (black/patchy areas as oppose to 'dots') in the field of vision. But as everything with potentially MS-related symptoms go, there's a lot of variation in what people experience, and we're not doctors here.

Whatever is at issue here, it likely only appears worse (rather than actually gets worse) when you go outside or look at a white screen as there is more bright light that shows the spots in starker contrast. You do not mention if one or both eyes are effected. Optic neuritis would be extremely unlikely to effect both eyes simultaneously. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1857074/

Evoked potentials would be a more typical test for loss of visual acuity versus trying to image optic neuritis via MRI. Contrast only helps refine the age of the lesions that show up on an MRI. The same lesions will show up with or without it.