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Updated: Oct 28, 2026
Dynamic Visual Tests to Identify and Quantify Visual Damage and Repair Following Demyelination in Optic Neuritis Patients
Published on: April 14, 2014
Magnitude of Visual Recovery at 12 Months After Optic Neuritis: Beyond Visual Acuity in a Thai Tertiary-Care Cohort
Marin Pattanapattana1, Pichaya Kulniwatcharoen1, Linda Hansapinyo1
1Department of Ophthalmology, Faculty of Medicine, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai, Thailand.
Purpose:
To compare the magnitude of visual recovery at 12 months after optic neuritis (ON), with long-term change as a secondary outcome, and distinguish numerical improvement from attained visual acuity (VA).
Patients And Methods:
This retrospective cohort included 184 adults with idiopathic ON, AQP4-IgG-positive NMOSD-ON, MOGAD-ON, or MS-ON. One affected eye per patient was selected by worse baseline VA, with right-eye ties. Primary recovery was baseline minus 12 ± 3-month logMAR VA; secondary recovery used last-follow-up VA. Baseline-adjusted VA contextualized change scores. MOGAD was descriptive only.
Results:
Twelve-month VA was available in 153 patients. Mean improvement was 0.76, 0.80, and 1.10 logMAR in idiopathic ON, NMOSD-ON, and MS-ON, respectively (ANOVA P=0.406). Corresponding last-follow-up changes were 0.78, 0.71, and 0.89 logMAR, over median follow-up of 38, 52, and 82 months. The baseline-adjusted 12-month analysis included 150 patients. Early steroid initiation was associated with better attained VA (β=-0.45; 95% CI -0.77 to -0.14; P=0.005).
Conclusion:
Recovery magnitude and attained vision provide complementary descriptions. No statistically significant difference in 12-month numerical recovery was detected across the three main etiologies; equivalence was not established. Long-term change reflects unequal observation time and possible recurrent attacks. Treatment-timing associations are observational.