Clinical Profile of the Optic Neuritis in Korea

ABSTRACT

We performed a retrospective review on 32 patients(37 eyes) with the diagnosis of optic neuritis with follow-up more than 3 months, to determine its clinical characteristics in Korea. They consisted of 18 women and 14 men with a median age of 35.9 years. The initial visual acuity on presentation was variable from 1.2 to NLP, 84% of patients had at least 0.5 or better final visual acuity. Sixty-nine percent of the patients showed swollen disc and the remaining appeared normal in the affected eyes. Visual field examination revealed central or ceco-central scotoma in 17 eyes(48%) and other variable visual field defects. Visual evoked potential was abnormal in 89% of the examined eyes. Magnetic resonance imaging showed optic nerve enhancement in 48% and characteristic findings consistent with multiple sclerosis was seen in 6% of the examined subjects. This result suggests that the optic neuritis in Korea present with more papillitis than retrobulbar optic neuritis and multiple sclerosis is less commonly seen compared with previous reports of Caucasian optic neuritis.