Abstract
Purpose: :
To study the clinical characteristics of multiple sclerosis and associated optic neuritis in Korean children
Methods: :
A retrospective analysis was performed on 12 patients with onset of multiple sclerosis before age 15. Information about sex, age of onset, clinical course and laboratory findings and clinical characteristics of optic neuritis occurred in our group was obtained.
Results: :
There was no female predilection(41.7%) with mean age of 7.6(±3.1)years at presentation. The mean duration of observation was 57(±54.4)months. The disease presented as relapsing–remitting type multiple sclerosis in all patients, and transited to secondary progressive type in 3 patients (25%). Oligoclonal band was not found in our group. Optic neuritis was occurred in 8 of 12 patients.(66.7%).5 of 8 patients(62.5%) had optic neuritis at thee first attack of multiple sclerosis, all of them manifested bilateral simultaneous optic neuritis. The visual acuity recovered to ≥20/40 in 5(33.3%) of 15 eyes, and in 4(26.7%) eyes, the visual acuity remained at ≤20/200. The patients who did not show optic neuritis at initial presentation had better visual prognosis than patients with optic neuritis from the first time.(p=0.030)
Conclusions: :
Among Korean children with multiple sclerosis, the age of onset and the rate of girls was lower than those in the previous reports. Visual prognosis was relatively bad and majority of patients manifested bilateral optic neuritis.
Keywords: neuro-ophthalmology: optic nerve • neuro-ophthalmology: diagnosis