Device to Guage and Track the Effects of MS
Optical coherence tomography (OCT), a simple eye exam completed in five minutes, may provide clinicians with a new tool to monitor patients who have multiple sclerosis (MS). A research study, authored by a team at Johns Hopkins University, that supports this conclusion was printed in the most recent issue of the journal Neurology.
OCT quantitatively measures retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) thickness; thinning of such is associated with MS. The Hopkins team recruited 40 patients with MS and 15 additional patients to serve as healthy, normal controls. Patients underwent OCT and cranial MRI scans employing SIENA-X.
Data procured MRI studies was employed to determine partial brain function and brain parenchymal function (BPF). This data was compared with thickness information from OCT to evaluate the relationship between the two using multiple linear regression.
The minimal thickness based on OCT and age together predicted 21 percent of the variance in BPF in the patients with MS. Among patients diagnosed with relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS), the two combined predicted 43 percent of the variance.
The partial correlation coefficient was higher for patients with RRMS than the whole cohort of MS patients, though both were highly statistically significant. The study authors noted that the relationship was a reflection of CSF volume rather than the volume of either white or gray matter volume.
The team concluded that measurements of RNFL using optical coherence tomography are related to the level of BPF and CSF volume. This information can be extrapolated to evaluate the status of disease amongst patients with MS.
Importantly, OCT scanning is less than one tenth as expensive as MRI scanning. Additionally, it is completed much more quickly than MRI. OCT provides information about the health of nerves which cannot be visualized using MRI; this information may also proceed symptoms. MRI images tissue loss rather than damage to nerves.
Future study is required to determine the role of this modality as an approach tro monitor disease progression, as well as its usefulness as an outcome measure in ongoing trials to investigate therapeutic options for MS.
October 24, 2007 Related topics: New Technology & Innovation, Diagnostic, Psychiatry & Neurology, Ophthalmology