Article Text

Download PDFPDF

Optical coherence tomography shows retinal abnormalities associated with optic nerve disease
  1. Kirstin L Tawse,
  2. Thomas R Hedges III,
  3. Marisa Gobuty,
  4. Carlos Mendoza-Santiesteban
  1. New England Eye Center, Tufts Medical Center, Tufts University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

Abstract

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) of the macula in patients with primary optic neuropathy has revealed the presence of structural changes in the neurosensory retina in addition to the nerve fibre layer. Subretinal fluid has been documented in papilloedema and non-arteritic ischaemic optic neuropathy, and may account for decreased visual acuity in affected patients. Subretinal fluid has also been described from other causes of optic nerve head swelling including diabetic papillopathy and papillitis. Drugs used in the treatment of multiple sclerosis, such as corticosteroids and fingolimod can cause decreased vision due to central serous and cystoid macular oedema sometimes confused with recurrent optic neuritis. A subset of patients with various types of optic atrophy show microcystic changes in the inner nuclear layer on spectral domain OCT imaging. The pathophysiology and visual significance of these retinal changes remain unclear, but may affect the diagnosis and management of optic nerve disorders.

  • Optic Nerve
  • Imaging
  • Retina

This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 3.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/

Statistics from Altmetric.com

Request Permissions

If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.