Retinal imaging with optical coherence tomography: a biomarker in multiple sclerosis?

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Ophthalmology
• Immunology

Background:

• Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a progressive neurological disorder with unclear causes and no cure.
• Current MS therapies focus on inflammation but may not halt neurodegeneration.
• There is a need for better biomarkers to detect and manage subclinical MS progression.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review the role of optical coherence tomography (OCT) in diagnosing, staging, and monitoring treatment response in MS.
• To evaluate OCT as a tool for detecting and quantifying neuroaxonal damage in MS.
• To explore the potential of OCT in understanding MS disease mechanisms.

Main Methods:

• Review of published literature and ongoing clinical trials on OCT in MS.
• Analysis of OCT-derived measures such as retinal nerve fiber layer thickness and ganglion-cell layer-inner plexiform layer thickness.
• Correlation of OCT findings with clinical disability, visual outcomes, and MRI-measured disease burden.

Main Results:

• OCT reliably measures axonal damage and neuronal loss in MS patients.
• OCT findings correlate with clinical disability, visual outcomes, and MRI-assessed disease burden.
• OCT may detect active CNS inflammatory activity through measures like macular edema.

Conclusions:

• OCT is emerging as a valuable tool for diagnosing and staging MS.
• OCT can help monitor disease progression and response to therapy in MS.
• The visual system serves as a model for using OCT to study CNS injury and repair in MS.