Nonarteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy is associated with cerebral small vessel disease

We investigated the presence of cerebral small vessel disease (SVD) in patients with nonarteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy (NAION) compared to control subjects without NAION to identify the association between NAION and cerebral SVD. We retrospectively reviewed the cases of 63 patients with NAION and 2749 control subjects without any neurologic and ocular diseases including NAION who underwent careful medical interviews, ophthalmic examinations, and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies of the brain. We assessed and compared the degree of cerebral SVD on the MRIs. The patients with NAION presented with cerebral SVD more frequently than controls (68% versus 37%, respectively, p