An inexpensive, five-minute eye scan can accurately assess
the amount of brain damage in people with the debilitating autoimmune disorder
multiple sclerosis (MS), and offer clues about how quickly the disease is
progressing, according to results of two Johns Hopkins studies.
“The eye is the window into the brain and by measuring how
healthy the eye is, we can determine how healthy the rest of the brain is,”
says Peter A. Calabresi, M.D., a professor of neurology at the Johns Hopkins
University School of Medicine, and leader of the studies described in recent
issues of The Lancet Neurology and the Archives of Neurology. “Eye scans are
not that expensive, are really safe, and are widely used in ophthalmology, and
now that we have evidence of their predictive value in MS, we think they are
ready for prime time. We should be using this new quantitative tool to learn
more about disease progression, including nerve damage and brain atrophy.”
journal reference (summary free): The Lancet Neurology>>