Scott Cameron Kolbe1,2, Clare Bajraszewski1, Caron Chapman2, Thanh Nguyen3, Leigh Johnston1,4, Peter Mitchell5, Mark Paine3, Helmut Butzkueven1,2, Trevor Kilpatrick1,2, Gary Egan1,2
1Florey Neuroscience Institutes, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia; 2Centre for Neuroscience, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia; 3Neuro-ophthalmology Unit, Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia; 4Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia; 5Department of Radiology, Royal Melbourne Hospital, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
We studied optic radiation DTI and multifocal visual evoked potentials in 15 patients with a history of optic neuritis, a common presentation of Multiple Sclerosis (MS). We found significant abnormalities in patient normal-appearing white matter in the optic radiations. We also found that reduced axial diffusivity in NAWM was associated with visual dysfunction in the affected eye indicative of optic nerve axonal pathology. These results suggest that trans-synaptic degeneration contributes to NAWM abnormalities in the context of MS.