Tracking Multiple Sclerosis

Tracking Multiple Sclerosis

Multiple Sclerosis patients may soon have a very effective new tool to help track the progression of their disease.

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a relatively new noninvasive imaging technique that allows eye doctors to easily examine the optic nerve, retina, and macula. A team of researchers at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine recently tested OCT on 40 MS patients and 15 healthy subjects. Each subject also received an MRI brain scan.

The Hopkins team found that OCT revealed brain tissue loss associated with thinner retinal nerve fibers in MS patients, but not healthy patients.

Researchers hope that further studies will confirm OCT’s effectiveness in determining the progress of MS in individual patients.

In a press release, lead author of the study, Peter Calabresi, M.D., said, “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.”

He also noted that OCT is significantly less expensive than MRI, and only takes five minutes, while an MRI may take up to an hour.

I’ll watch for further OCT research and keep you posted. In the meantime, MS patients looking for alternative therapies will find a wealth of information in an HSI report titled Underground Cures: What Your Doctor Won’t Tell You About Multiple Sclerosis. Compiled with the input of experts on the HSI Advisory Panel, this report offers details on treatments that have provided invaluable answers for many MS patients.