Orbital high resolution magnetic resonance imaging with fast spin echo in the acute stage of Leber’s hereditary optic neuropathy
- Yukihiko Mashimaa,
- Kazuhiro Oshitaria,
- Yutaka Imamuraa,
- Suketaka Momoshimab,
- Hayao Shigab,
- Yoshihisa Oguchia
- aDepartment of Ophthalmology, bDepartment of Radiology, Keio University School of Medicine, 35 Shinanomachi, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, Japan
- Dr Yukihiko Mashima, Department of Ophthalmology, Keio University School of Medicine, 35 Shinanomachi, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 160, Japan. Telephone 0081 3 3353 1211 ext 2402; fax: 0081 3 3359 8302.
- Received 20 February 1997
- Revised 11 July 1997
- Accepted 23 July 1997
Abstract
Some evidence suggests that the primary locus of the lesion in Leber’s hereditary optic neuropathy (LHON) may be intraocular rather than retrobulbar. To clarify this issue, the condition of the retrobulbar portion of the optic nerve was evaluated in patients with the acute stage of LHON. High resolution MRI with fast spin echo sequences of the optic nerve complex in the orbit was carried out. Five patients with acute stage LHON were compared with seven patients with acute stage optic neuritis. On T2 weighted fast spin echo MRI, signal changes did not appear in the retrobulbar optic nerve complex in acute stage LHON. By comparison, patients with optic neuritis showed pronounced high signals in the optic nerve. Subsequent orbital MRI in the atrophic stages of the same patients with LHON showed an increase in signal intensity in the optic nerve toward the orbital apex in both eyes. The present results support the hypothesis that a primary lesion in LHON may be intraocular.
