Study Suggests Eyes Offer Unique Window to MS Damage and Repair -- - May represent new way to track benefits of therapy during clinical trials in progressive MS

Excerpt from: National Multiple Sclerosis Society (click for full article)

 

A team of researchers scanned the eyes of a group of people with MS over nearly two years, and also did MRI scans and regular clinical exams. The researchers, from Johns Hopkins University and other institutions across the country, found that thinning of the back layer of the eye may represent a window to global damage occurring in the nervous system, and suggest that this tool may be useful for tracking nerve protection in clinical trials involving people with MS. The study, by John Ratchford, MD, Peter Calabresi, MD, and colleagues, was funded in part by the National MS Society’s Promise: 2010 Nervous System Repair and Protection initiative. It was published in the January 2013 issue of Neurology.