PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Mashima, Yukihiko
AU  - Oshitari, Kazuhiro
AU  - Imamura, Yutaka
AU  - Momoshima, Suketaka
AU  - Shiga, Hayao
AU  - Oguchi, Yoshihisa
TI  - Orbital high resolution magnetic resonance imaging with fast spin echo in the acute stage of Leber’s hereditary optic neuropathy
AID  - 10.1136/jnnp.64.1.124
DP  - 1998 Jan 01
TA  - Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry
PG  - 124--127
VI  - 64
IP  - 1
4099  - http://jnnp.bmj.com/content/64/1/124.short
4100  - http://jnnp.bmj.com/content/64/1/124.full
SO  - J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry1998 Jan 01; 64
AB  - 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.