Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 15, 2026
Corneal Confocal Microscopy: A Novel Non-invasive Technique to Quantify Small Fibre Pathology in Peripheral Neuropathies
Published on: January 3, 2011
Nerve fibre layer analysis with GDx with a variable corneal compensator in patients with multiple sclerosis
Giovanni Della Mea1, Sonia Bacchetti, Marco Zeppieri
1Department of Ophthalmology, S. Maria della Misericordia Hospital, Udine, Italy.
Purpose:
To evaluate the ability of GDx with variable corneal compensator (VCC) compared to visual-evoked potentials (VEPs) and standard automated perimetry (SAP) in the detection of early optic nerve damage in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS).
Methods:
46 eyes of 23 MS patients were included. Ten of them had a history of acute retrobulbar optic neuritis. A control group of 20 normal subjects was also included. All subjects underwent a complete ophthalmological examination and testing with SAP, GDx VCC and VEPs.
Results:
19 eyes (41.3%) were abnormal with GDx VCC compared to 38 eyes (82.6%) with SAP and 31 (64.4%) with VEPs. In the optic neuritis group, 9 eyes (69.2%) had optic nerve pallor; SAP was abnormal in 8 of these eyes (61.5%) while VEPs and GDx VCC were abnormal in 6 eyes (46.1%). 2/20 eyes (10.0%) in the control group gave a false-positive abnormal result with SAP. GDx VCC and VEP were normal for all the eyes in the control group.
Conclusions:
GDx VCC is less able to detect early defects in MS patients compared to the currently used standard techniques of SAP and VEPs.
