Since its first description optic nerve hypoplasia has been identified with increasing frequency, and a range of associated problems have been described. The major neurological and endocrine associations are well established, but those factors that predispose to the development of optic nerve hypoplasia remain unclear. To understand the aetiology of these problems better, and to formulate a man...

THE word "neurone" in ancient Greece, in addition to signifying "nerve", also meant "a bow-string". The toughness of the optic nerve might be regarded as a vindication of this etymology. It is not uncommon to find the optic nerve reduced to a mere thread by a tumour or aneurysm at a time when vision is still intact. But the optic nerve is not, in fact, a nerve, but a tract of white matter. This...

The aim of this paper is to compare diameter of healthy and affected optic nerve determined by ultrasound with brain lesions in acute retrobulbar neuritis in patients with multiple sclerosis. In this prospective study 20 patients with multiple sclerosis and acute retrobulbar neuritis were examined. Optic nerve diameter was measured by ultrasound. Brain lesions were detected by magnetic resonanc...

Injury to the optic nerve can lead to axonal degeneration, followed by a gradual death of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs), which results in irreversible vision loss. Examples of such diseases in human include traumatic optic neuropathy and optic nerve degeneration in glaucoma. It is characterized by typical changes in the optic nerve head, progressive optic nerve degeneration, and loss of retinal...

Purpose The purpose of this study was to determine whether cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) enters the optic nerve via a glymphatic pathway and whether this entry is size-dependent. Methods Fluorescent dextran tracers (fluorescein isothiocyanate [FITC]) of four different sizes (10, 40, 70, and 500 kDa) and FITC-ovalbumin (45 kDa) were injected into the CSF of 15 adult mice. Tracer distribution in th...

This study was undertaken to measure number, diameter and distribution of nerve fibers in normal human optic nerves. Twenty-two optic nerves of 19 subjects aged between 20 and 75 years were histomorphometrically examined using semithin sections obtained in a distance of 2 to 5 mm behind the globe. The mean nerve fiber count was 1,159,000 +/- 196,000 with a minimum of 816,000 and a maximum of 1,...

The clinical presentation of optic nerve anomalies associated with renal hypodysplasia should alert the clinician to the possibility that a patient may have renal coloboma syndrome, a condition also known as papillorenal syndrome (OMIM#120330). The optic nerve findings could be described as a ‘dysplasia’, characterized by absent central vessels with the emergence of vessels from the periphery o...

AIM To study the normal distributions of mitochondria and voltage gated Na+ channels in the human optic nerve head in order to gain insight into the potential mechanisms of optic nerve dysfunction seen in the inherited optic neuropathies. METHODS Five fresh frozen human optic nerves were studied. Longitudinally orientated, serial cryosections of optic nerve head were cut for mitochondrial enz...

The optic nerve and chiasm, obtained at autopsy, from 53 cases with clinical histories of cerebrovascular disturbances were histopathologically investigated, and ischemic changes in the posterior portion of the optic nerve were revealed in 12 cases. The progress of posterior ischemic optic neuropathy might be divided into necrotic, liquefactive and scar stages. The lesions were located in the t...