Finding prognostic and diagnostic biomarkers
In an ongoing multisite study, Dr. Saidha and his colleagues are assessing the use of OCT in patients with progressive MS (including 186 patients from Johns Hopkins), and also determining if OCT changes differ over time between relapsing-remitting MS and different subtypes of progressive MS. So far, they have found that progressive MS is associated with accelerated inner and in particular outer layer retinal atrophy. “Although this is a decent-sized cohort, at this stage I’m not sure I would definitively say that these novel retinal biomarkers have utility specific to progressive MS, but I’m very excited about it,” he said. “The goal is to take a much deeper look at this.”
Findings from a large collaborative IMSVISUAL inter-eye asymmetry study showed that peripapillary RNFL and ganglion cell–inner plexiform layer inter-eye differences of 5 microns, respectively, were optimal for identifying patients with prior unilateral optic neuritis in the MS cohort. “In the future, the possibility of using OCT to identify subclinical optic neuropathy so we can define when a lesion is present in the optic nerve has huge diagnostic implications for MS, because the optic nerve is not currently recognized as a lesion site in current MS diagnostic criteria,” Dr. Saidha said.
Dr. Saidha disclosed that he has served on scientific advisory boards for Biogen, Genzyme, Genentech, EMD Serono, and Novartis. He has also received consulting fees from JuneBrain LLC and is the site investigator of a trial sponsored by MedDay Pharmaceuticals.