Optic neuritis is an inflammatory optic neuropathy that affects many patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) at some point during their disease course. Differentiation of acute episodes of MS-associated optic neuritis from other autoimmune and inflammatory optic neuropathies is vital for treatment choice and further patient management, but is not always straightforward. Over the past decade, a number of new imaging, laboratory and electrophysiological techniques have entered the clinical arena. To date, however, no consensus guidelines have been devised to specify how and when these techniques can be most rationally applied for the diagnostic work-up of patients with acute optic neuritis ...

Background: Retinal optical coherence tomography (OCT) permits quantification of retinal layer atrophy relevant to assessment of neurodegeneration in multiple sclerosis (MS). Measurement artefacts may limit the use of OCT to MS research. Objective: An expert task force convened with the aim to provide guidance on the use of validated quality control (QC) criteria for the use of OCT in MS research and clinical trials. Methods: A prospective multi-centre ( n = 13) study. Peripapillary ring scan QC rating of an OCT training set ( n = 50) was followed by a test set ( n = 50). Inter-rater agreement was calculated using kappa statistics. Results were ...