A group of scientists believe an eye scan may help doctors track the progress of a debilitating disease, multiple sclerosis. Right now costly tests are used to monitor this disease. Researchers believe this new discovery could help patients and save thousands of dollars.
What is multiple sclerosis, or MS?
MS is caused by damage to the myelin sheath, the protective covering that surrounds nerve cells. When this nerve covering is damaged, nerve impulses are slowed down or stopped. It causes severe pain and inflammation, vision problems and twitching.
There is no cure for the disease, but there are treatments to control and manage the symptoms. Approximately 400,000 people in the United States have MS.
The new discovery
A Johns Hopkins-based study of a group of 40 multiple sclerosis (MS) patients used a process called optical coherence tomography (OCT) to scan the layers of nerve fibers of the retina. By measuring the thickness of the optic nerve doctors believe they can judge the progression of MS.
“This is an encouraging result,” says Johns Hopkins neurologist Peter Calabresi, M.D., lead author of the study, which appears in Neurology. “MRIs, the current method to monitor MS, is an imperfect tool that measures the result of many types of tissue loss rather than specifically nerve damage itself. With this new eye scan we can see exactly how healthy these nerves are, potentially in advance of other symptoms.”
In addition, says Calabresi, OCT scans take roughly one-tenth as long and cost one-tenth as much as the MRI.
A new hope
Aside from helping those battling MS, researchers believe this eye scan could help doctors detect the disease sooner.
“Treatments for MS cannot reverse the damage but they can arrest it, so the earlier we get someone on medication the quicker we can stop the disease from causing more harm.”
