Neurophysiological and CSF immunological study of 19 patients affected by acute idiopatic optic neuritis.

We studied 19 patients affected by acute idiopatic optic neuritis (ON), with neurophysiological tests: visual (VEP), somatosensory (SSEP), acoustic (ABR) evoked potentials and study of the blink reflex (BR), and with cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) examination, in order to detect "silent" lesions in the central nervous system (CNS) and/or immunological alterations, suggestive of multiple sclerosis (MS). The percentage of cases with at least one altered CSF IgG parameter (IgG index, IgG synthesis/day and IgG oligoclonal bands) has been higher than that of cases with one or more altered neurophysiological tests, regardless of the apparently intact eye VEP. If we also included this last test, the 2 percentages become identical. The validity of these tests in predicting the evolution of ON in MS is discussed.