Prevalence of Ophthalmological Manifestations of Multiple Sclerosis

Abstract

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an immune mediated inflammatory disease that affects the myelin of the central nervous system and can cause many neurologic deficits. MS is a disease with a heterogeneous presentation and different disease course. Recent studies indicate increasing prevalence of MS in the Middle East. One hundred participants followed as out-patients in MS unit, Department of Neurology, Ain Shams University Hospital were included in this study. All patients were subjected to full ophthalmic examination in order to assess the neuro-ophthalmic manifestations and their correlation with visual dysfunction in patients of multiple sclerosis. This study proved the evidence that optic neuritis is the most common visual manifestation of MS and is often the initial presentation of MS as we reported that in 36 patients (36%) the disease started with acute optic neuritis that was unilateral in 31% and bilateral in 5%. During the course of the disease 44 patients (44%) had at least one attack of acute optic neuritis. It usually causes acute unilateral visual dysfunction and it has been a very common early manifestation of MS. It is often accompanied by visual field loss, color desaturation and relative afferent pupillary defect. Although most patients' visual acuity recovers to baseline after an episode of optic