| Summary: | Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic inflammatory and neurodegenerative disease. Optic neuritis (ON) is a possible ophthalmological manifestation of MS. Axonal lost can be studied using optic nerve information provided by optical coherence tomography (OCT). In Centro Hospitalar São João (CHSJ), MS patients may have done an OCT, regardless of having had ON or not. Little is known about these two subroups and their OCT results, so, our aim was to describe and compare them. CHSJ MS patients that had an OCT with peripapillary retinal nerve fiber layer thickness (pRNFLt) value were identified and stratified in ONMS (if ON history) and non-ONMS (if no ON history). To study clinical and demographic characteristics, patients were considered. When comparing OCT results, eyes were used instead. Stable patients were those with no clinical relapses and no increasing lesion load in the two previous years. There were 61 patients, 39 (51eyes) in ONMS and 22 (43eyes) in non-ONMS. ONMS had a pRNFLt significantly lower than non-ONMS (p=0.006). Stable patients from ONMS had a higher pRNFLt than their subgroup (stable ONMS:83.62μm, subgroup ONMS:79.32μm, p=0.780), however, in non-ONMS, an opposite tendency was observed (stable non-ONMS:80.78μm, subgroup non-ONMS:91.01μm, p=0.182). This is the first Portuguese hospital-based study comparing OCT information with other clinical variables in MS. As expected, a higher retinal nerve fiber layer atrophy was seen in eyes with previous ON. A surprising finding was the lower pRNFLt of stable non-ONMS patients comparing to their subgroup result. Therefore, we suggest more OCT exams in all MS patients.
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