Functional Evaluation of the Visual Pathway in Patients with Multiple Sclerosis Using a Multifunction Stimulator Monitor.

Objectives: To assess the capability of the vision monitor unit Monpack One of detecting visual function alterations in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) and to evaluate the correlation between structural retinal parameters and functional measurements obtained with this device.

Methods: Forty-eight patients with MS and 46 healthy controls were included in a cross-sectional study. All participants underwent a complete functional evaluation of the visual pathway, which included low-contrast visual acuity (LCVA), contrast sensitivity vision (CSV), automated perimetry, multifocal visual evoked potentials (mfVEPs), and pattern electroretinogram (ERG).

Retinal and Optic Nerve Degeneration in Patients with Multiple Sclerosis Followed up for 5 Years.

Purpose: To quantify retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) changes in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) and healthy controls with a 5-year follow-up and to analyze correlations between disability progression and RNFL degeneration.

Design: Observational and longitudinal study.

Participants: One hundred patients with relapsing-remitting MS and 50 healthy controls.

Electrophysiology and optical coherence tomography to evaluate Parkinson disease severity.

Purpose: To evaluate correlations between visual evoked potentials (VEP), pattern electroretinogram (PERG), and macular and retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) thickness measured by optical coherence tomography (OCT) and the severity of Parkinson disease (PD).

Methods: Forty-six PD patients and 33 age and sex-matched healthy controls were enrolled, and underwent VEP, PERG, and OCT measurements of macular and RNFL thicknesses, and evaluation of PD severity using the Hoehn and Yahr scale to measure PD symptom progression, the Schwab and England Activities of Daily Living Scale (SE-ADL) to evaluate patient quality of life (QOL), and disease duration. Logistical regression was performed to analyze which measures, if any, could predict PD symptom progression or effect on QOL.

Electropysiologic evaluation of the visual pathway in patients with multiple sclerosis.

Purpose: To evaluate the ability of visual evoked potentials and pattern electroretinograms (PERG) to detect subclinical axonal damage in patients during the early diagnostic stage of multiple sclerosis (MS). The authors also compared the ability of optical coherence tomography (OCT), PERG, and visual evoked potentials to detect axonal loss in MS patients and correlated the functional and structural properties of the retinal nerve fiber layer.

Methods: Two hundred twenty-eight eyes of 114 subjects (57 MS patients and 57 age- and sex-matched healthy controls) were included.

Neuro-ophthalmologic evaluation, quality of life, and functional disability in patients with MS.

Objective: To evaluate correlations between longitudinal changes in neuro-ophthalmologic measures and quality of life (QOL) and disability in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS), using optical coherence tomography (OCT), visual evoked potentials (VEP), and visual field examination.

Methods: Fifty-four patients with relapsing-remitting MS were enrolled in this study and underwent Multiple Sclerosis Quality of Life questionnaire (54 items) (MSQOL-54) and Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) evaluation, as well as complete neuro-ophthalmologic examination including visual field testing and retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) measurements using Cirrus and Spectralis OCT and VEP. All patients were re-evaluated at 12, 24, and 36 months.

Influence of cataract surgery on optical coherence tomography and neurophysiology measurements in patients with retinitis pigmentosa.

Purpose: To evaluate the effect of uncomplicated cataract phacoemulsification on the measurements of visual evoked potentials (VEP), pattern electroretinogram (PERG), and macular and retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) using 2 spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (OCT) instruments, the Cirrus OCT (Carl Zeiss Meditech) and Spectralis OCT (Heidelberg Engineering), in patients with retinitis pigmentosa (RP), and to assess the reliability of the OCT measurements before and after cataract surgery.

Design: Observational cross-sectional study.

Methods: Thirty-five eyes of 35 patients with RP (20 men and 15 women, 45-66 years) who underwent cataract phacoemulsification were studied.

Ocular manifestations (strabismus: duane syndrome; and retinal nerve fiber hypoplasia) in okihiro syndrome (duane radial ray syndrome).

Background And Purpose: Two siblings diagnosed with Okihiro Syndrome (also named Duane Radial Ray Syndrome) associated with ophthalmic manifestation including Duane Syndrome and retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) hypoplasia were presented.

Methods: The first patient (15-years old female) was diagnosed of Duane Syndrome presenting reduction of visual acuity and pale optic discs. She showed a diffuse decrease in the RNFL thickness, mainly in her left eye, retaining the typical RNFL morphology as double hump, demonstrated by OCT and scanning laser polarimetry.

Progressive degeneration of the retinal nerve fiber layer in patients with multiple sclerosis.

Purpose: To quantify changes in the retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) of patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) over 3 years and to evaluate whether treatment protects against RNFL degeneration.

Methods: Ninety-four MS patients and 50 healthy subjects were followed-up over 3 years. All subjects underwent a complete ophthalmic examination, which included assessment of visual acuity (Snellen chart), color vision (Ishihara pseudoisochromatic plates), visual field examination, optical coherence tomography (OCT), and visual evoked potentials (VEPs).

Optical coherence tomography in retinitis pigmentosa: reproducibility and capacity to detect macular and retinal nerve fiber layer thickness alterations.

Purpose: To evaluate the ability of time-domain and Fourier-domain optical coherence tomographies (OCTs) to detect macular and retinal nerve fiber layer atrophies in retinitis pigmentosa (RP). To test the intrasession reproducibility using three OCT instruments (Stratus, Cirrus, and Spectralis).

Methods: Eighty eyes of 80 subjects (40 RP patients and 40 healthy subjects) underwent a visual field examination, together with 3 macular scans and 3 optic disk evaluations by the same experienced examiner using 3 OCT instruments.

Risk factors for progressive axonal degeneration of the retinal nerve fibre layer in multiple sclerosis patients.

Aim: To quantify structural and functional degeneration in the retinal nerve fibre layer (RNFL) of patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) over a 2-year time period, and to analyse the effect of prior optic neuritis (ON) as well as the duration and incidence of MS relapses.

Methods: 166 MS patients and 120 healthy controls underwent assessment of visual acuity and colour vision, visual field examination, optical coherence tomography, scanning laser polarimetry and visual evoked potentials (VEPs). All subjects were re-evaluated after a period of 12 and 24 months.

Effect of optic neuritis on progressive axonal damage in multiple sclerosis patients.

Objective: The objective of this research was to study the effect of optic neuritis (ON) on axonal damage in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients. Specifically, we compared changes over 2 years in the retinal nerve fibre layer (RNFL) between affected and contralateral eyes in MS patients with a prior history of ON.

Methods: Thirty-four patients with one unilateral definitive episode of ON were included and underwent a complete ophthalmic examination, optical coherence tomography (OCT), scanning laser polarimetry, visual evoked potentials (VEP) and pattern electroretinogram (pERG).

[Effect of treatment in loss of retinal nerve fibre layer in multiple sclerosis patients].

Objective: To evaluate the effect of pathogenic treatments in the reduction of the retinal nerve fibre layer (RNFL) in patients with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) by means of ocular imaging technologies.

Material And Methods: A total 155 eyes of 79 patients with MS were enrolled in this study. All patients underwent a complete ophthalmic examination including best corrected visual acuity using Snellen chart, colour vision using Ishihara pseudoisochromatic plates, visual field examination, optical coherence tomography (OCT), scanning laser polarimetry (GDx) and visual evoked potentials.

Correlation between functional and structural assessments of the optic nerve and retina in multiple sclerosis patients.

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the correlation between functional eye examinations (visual evoked potentials: VEPs; pattern electroretinogram: PERG) and structural measurements of the optic nerve (optical coherence tomography: OCT; scanning laser polarimetry: GDx) in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS).

Methods: Patients with definite MS and disease-free controls were enrolled in the study. VEPs and PERG were recorded in all subjetcs.

[Atrophy of the retinal nerve fibre layer in multiple sclerosis patients. Prospective study with two years follow-up].

Objective: To evaluate the changes over two years in the retinal nerve fibre layer (RNFL) of patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). To compare the ability of optical coherence tomography (OCT), scanning laser polarimetry (GDx), visual evoked potentials (VEP) and visual field examination to detect axonal loss in these patients.

Material And Methods: Fifty eyes of MS patients without episodes or optic neuritis during follow-up were enrolled in this study.

Progressive changes in the retinal nerve fiber layer in patients with multiple sclerosis.

Purpose: To quantify changes in the retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) of patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) over a 1-year time period and to compare the ability of noninvasive diagnostic imaging devices and visual evoked potentials (VEP) to detect axonal loss in these patients.

Methods: Eighty-one patients with MS underwent a complete ophthalmic examination that included assessment of visual acuity and color vision, refractive evaluation, visual field examination, optical coherence tomography (OCT), scanning laser polarimetry (GDx), and measurement of VEP. All the patients were re-evaluated after a period of 12 months in order to quantify any change in the RNFL.

Axonal loss in the retinal nerve fiber layer in patients with multiple sclerosis.

Objective: To quantify axonal loss in the retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS), with and without a history of optic neuritis, by means of ocular imaging technologies.

Methods: This cross-sectional study enrolled 50 patients with MS and 25 age- and sex-matched healthy controls. All patients underwent neurologic assessment and a complete ophthalmic examination that included visual acuity, visual field examination, optical coherence tomography (OCT), scanning laser polarimetry (GDx) and visual evoked potentials (VEPs).

[Post traumatic partial seizures].

Introduction: Post traumatic epilepsy represents 4% of the prevalence of the disorder and is one of the sequelas which is most difficult to prevent. Risk factors have been described to predict the appearance of seizures.

Clinical Case: A seven year old boy with a severe head injury was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit.

[Peripheral neuropathy in systemic lupus erythematosus].

Introduction: Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is the connective tissue disorder in which neuropsychiatric complications are most often seen. The prevalence of peripheral neuropathy varies from 5 to 27% depending on the series of cases described, with subclinical forms being most frequent.

Objectives: To determine the prevalence of subclinical peripheral neuropathy in a group of patients with SLE, define their characteristics, and investigate any possible associations with clinico analytical parameters of the disease.

[Pattern electroretinogram in anterior ischemic optic neuropathy].

Introduction: Anterior ischemia optic neuropathy is defined as ischemia of the disc optic papilla nerve. The aetiology is multifactorial and causes ischemia of the optic disc and apoptosis of the nerve cells of the retina.

Objective: To study the retina of patients with anterior ischemia optic neuropathy by means of the electroretinogram pattern (PERG) to assess the function of ganglion cells of the inner layers of the retina.

[Why evidence-based medicine? 20 years of meta-analysis].

Background: Meta-analysis, described within evidence-based medicine, has become a frequent issue in recent medical literature. An exhaustive search of reported meta-analysis from any medical specialty is described.

Material And Methods: Search of papers included in Medline or Embase between 1973-1998.

[Neurological sciences based on evidence].

Objective: An exhaustive search of reported metanalysis from any medical speciality is described.

Material And Methods: Search of papers included in MEDLINE or EMBASE between 1973-1998. A descriptive analysis of the reported papers (frequency tables and graphics) is described, including differences of mean of reported metanalysis papers by medical speciality and year.