[The risk of multiple sclerosis development in patients with idiopathic optic neuritis: prognosis and other problems]

The percentage of patients with idiopathic optic neuritis (ION) developing multiple sclerosis (MS) was higher in young females who had recurrent ION, especially during 4 years since the first inflammatory attack. Clinical features of ION had no prognostic value. Patients with ION developed also more frequently MS if paraclinical findings showed the occurrence of DR2, DR3, DQw1 and/or DPw4, increased CSF IgG index, CSF oligoclonal IgG, asymptomatic lesions in NMR brain images, and subclinical abnormalities in visual, brainstem auditory, somatosensory evoked potentials. The author discusses the problem whether high risk patients with ION should be given antiviral and immunomodulatory drugs which could prevent or delay the clinical onset of MS.