Evaluation of retinal nerve fiber layer thickness in relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis: a prospective study

Previous studies suggest that retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) thickness decreases over time in multiple sclerosis (MS) and can be a marker of disease activity for patients’ follow-up. Here, we aimed to compare RNFL thickness in patients with relapsing remitting MS (RRMS) during three years of follow-up.
During this prospective study, patients with diagnosis of RRMS and history of optic neuritis were included in the study. Demographic features and disease characteristics were collected and they underwent Optical coherence tomography (OCT). OCT was repeated after three years and obtained amounts were compared.
A total of 12 patients (11 women) with mean age of 35.6 ± 6.1 years and mean disease duration of 5.3 ± 5.8 were included in the study. RNFL thickness was 101.27 ± 9.15μm and 92.00 ±7.96 μm in the left eye at the baseline and after 3 years, respectively (P-value We found a significant decrease in RNFL thickness in RRMS patients after 3 years of follow up, in spite of getting immunomodulatory treatment. We recommend OCT as an inexpensive and feasible tool for outcome measurement in RRMS patients.