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The retina will help to track the development of multiple sclerosis
Last reviewed: 28.11.2021
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Scientists from the Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, found that using a routine vision test can quickly and easily do an analysis of the health status of people with multiple sclerosis.
At the moment there is no such medicine that could stop the disease, the maximum that can be done is to slow the progression of the disease.
A new method for the diagnosis of multiple sclerosis is called optical coherence tomography, which is used in ophthalmology. It can be performed on a doctor's appointment, and its duration is only a few minutes.
This technique allows you to track the disease processes in patients with multiple sclerosis in the thickness of the retina, and the degree of its thinning will accurately tell doctors the speed with which the disease progresses.
A secondary sign of an autoimmune disease is damage to the neurons of the brain and spinal cord, and the primary one is the destruction of myelin. Accordingly, for the timely detection of multiple sclerosis, it is necessary to examine tissues that are devoid of myelin sheath, for example, the inner shell of the eye-the retina.
In the experiment of scientists, led by a doctor of medical sciences and lead author of the study of Peter Calabresi, 164 people took part - people with multiple sclerosis, and 59 absolutely healthy people who entered the control group. For 21 months, with a frequency of once every six months, they underwent eye scanning with the help of optical coherence tomography. At the beginning of the experiment and then every year they also underwent a magnetic resonance imaging of the brain.
As a result, scientists came to the conclusion that in patients with a relapsing-relapsing form of multiple sclerosis (this form is characterized by the disappearance of symptoms for a while), retinal thinning occurred 42% faster than in others. 54% faster retinal thinning in those who have been found to have signs of active inflammation, known as lesions of gadolinium. The rate of retinal thinning was 36% faster in patients with T2 lesions.
In addition, experts noticed that those patients whose incapacity worsened throughout the study, the retina was thinner by 37% compared to those who showed no signs of deterioration.
The thickness of the retina decreased by 43% faster in patients who had been ill for less than five years compared to those who had been suffering from the disease for a longer time.
The results of the study suggest that in people with a short duration of illness and a more active form, the retinal thinning can go more intensively.
Multiple sclerosis is a progressive disease of the nervous system, which, despite the seemingly speaking name, has nothing to do with absentmindedness, or with senile sclerosis. The name of the disease is due to the peculiarity of the location along the entire nervous system of lesions of sclerosis, which the nerve tissue is changed to connective.