Retinal Spheroids and Axon Pathology Identified in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis.

Purpose: To determine whether patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) show retinal axon pathology.

Methods: Postmortem eyes from 10 patients with ALS were sectioned and compared with 10 age-matched controls. Retinal sections were evaluated with periodic acid Schiff and phosphorylated (P-NF) and nonphosphorylated (NP-NF) forms of neurofilament with SMI 31 and 32 antibodies.