Retinal abnormalities in multiple sclerosis patients with associated chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a non-invasive method for the assessment of optic nerve fibers and retinal ganglion cells. This study was aimed at the assessment of retinal abnormalities in multiple sclerosis patients in the context of chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency using OCT of the retina and the optic nerve. We examined 239 multiple sclerosis (MS) patients, including 220 patients with associated chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency and 19 MS patients without venous pathology. The following OCT parameters were assessed: average ganglion cell complex thickness, global loss volume, focal loss volume and average retinal nerve fibre layer thickness. Abnormalities in the azygous and internal jugular veins were evaluated using catheter venography. We found a higher prevalence of abnormal OCT parameters in the patients with previous history of optic neuritis, not only on the side of inflammatory event, but also in the contralateral eye, which is in line with already existing body of evidence. The new and intriguing discovery is that we found statistically significant higher prevalence of abnormal OCT values in multiple sclerosis patients with unilateral stenosis of internal jugular vein. Patients who were not found venous abnormalities, as well as those presenting with pathologic azygous or bilateral internal jugular venous outflows, did not demonstrate a changed frequency of abnormal OCT parameters. Potential association between venous malformations and eye manifestations of multiple sclerosis, as has been demonstrated in this report, justifies further studies on this topic.