Diagnostic Value of the Visual Evoked Potential Investigation in Optic Neuritis

Objective: Comparative analysis of the results of the visual evoked potential investigation according to stages of optic neuritis (ON). Material and Methods: The study included 90 patients (90 eyes) with different stages of ON. A control group comprised 10 somatically healthy persons (10 eyes) of the same age without ophthalmic pathology. All examined underwent standard ophthalmologic examination, including visometry, tonometry, perimetry, and ophthalmoscopy, as well as optical coherence tomography (OCT) and visual evoked potentials (VEP) determination. Results: The VEP parameters provide identification of the functional disorders of the optic nerve. Our results showed that there is delayed latency and reduced amplitude of the P100 component in patients with ischemic and atrophic stages of the disease. In ON, P100 was the most informative index. We noted that the N145 parameter in ON is not very informative. Conclusion: An estimation of VEP parameters provides a more reliable diagnosis of the stage of disease and aids in monitoring the effectiveness of treatment.