[Clinical aspects of the abnormal pupillary response; shedding light on pupillary response].

Testing the pupillary response is a quick and valuable diagnostic measure for certain neurological and ophthalmological diseases in patients. The pupillary response can aid in localizing abnormalities in important parts of the visual system and brainstem, provided that the tests are executed and interpreted correctly. When an abnormal pupillary response is found, it is important to differentiate between an afferent problem (eyeball, retina, optical nerve), brain stem pathology, or an efferent problem (parasympathetic fibers of the oculomotor nerve, iris sphincter muscle).

Progression of Anterograde Trans-Synaptic Degeneration in the Human Retina Is Modulated by Axonal Convergence and Divergence.

In the visual pathway of patients with multiple sclerosis (MS), the inner nuclear layer (INL) of the retina is a tight barrier for retrograde trans-synaptic degeneration. In this observational, retrospective cross-sectional study, segmented macular spectral domain optical coherence tomography (OCT) volume scans were reviewed to investigate if this observation also holds true for anterograde trans-synaptic degeneration. Significant thinning was found in all retinal layers in patients with outer retinal diseases compared with the healthy controls, while there was no significant attenuation of the outer retina in patients with MS.

Patterns of retrograde axonal degeneration in the visual system.

Conclusive evidence for existence of acquired retrograde axonal degeneration that is truly trans-synaptic (RTD) has not yet been provided for the human visual system. Convincing data rely on experimental data of lesions to the posterior visual pathways. This study aimed to overcome the limitations of previous human studies, namely pathology to the anterior visual pathways and neurodegenerative co-morbidity.

Time is vision in recurrent optic neuritis.

In optic neuritis (ON) inflammation precedes onset of demyelination and axonal loss. The anti-inflammatory properties of corticosteroids may be most effective in the early inflammatory phase, but rapid patient recruitment remains a logistic challenge. The aim of the study was to review the effect of time to initiation of treatment on visual outcome in recurrent ON.

Prefoveal floaters as a differential diagnosis to optic neuritis: "mouches dormantes".

This case series describes a new optical coherence tomography (OCT) specific observation relevant to the differential diagnosis of patients with suspected optic neuritis. A tiny prefoveal floater, only detectable by OCT, was found responsible for the symptoms in three patients, one of whom had been referred with unilateral delayed visual evoked potentials. This case series suggests that with increased use of OCT in routine clinical care, entoptic phenomena can be demonstrated as a relevant differential diagnosis to optic neuritis.