Observational studyJournal of the neurological sciences2026
The impact of adding optical coherence tomography in MS diagnostic criteria on the classification of tumefactive demyelination.
Observational study in Journal of the neurological sciences, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
14 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundDe novo tumefactive demyelination (TD) poses a diagnostic challenge, with lower rates of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) oligoclonal bands and lower female-to-male ratio than typical onset multiple sclerosis (MS). Only about half fulfill the 2017 McDonald diagnostic criteria for MS at presentation. Therefore, our aim was to assess optic nerve involvement by optical coherence tomography (OCT) in patients with TD. Further, whether the presence of abnormalities on OCT would allow additional TD patients to be diagnosed with MS when the optic nerve is added as a fifth topography to the Barkhof criteria or 2017 McDonald criteria.
methodsObservational retrospective chart review of patients seen at a tertiary referral center from 1/1/1990 to 2/21/2024 with TD. Inclusion criteria were: 1) brain MRI showing an active TD lesion; 2) medical records with at least one available clinical assessment by a neurologist; 3) available Cirrus OCT data to review. Exclusion criteria were: 1) patients with final diagnosis of vasculitis, abscess, CNS malignancies, or MOGAD; 2) presence of confounding ocular disease.
resultsOCT was available in 68 patients with TD. The tumefactive attack was the first demyelinating event in 45 (67 %) patients. At presentation, 29/68 (43 %) fulfilled 3 of 4 Barkhof criteria, and 34/68 (50 %) fulfilled the 2017 McDonald criteria for the diagnosis of MS. A clinical history of optic neuritis was present in 9/68 (13 %) patients and OCT was abnormal in 9/9 (100 %) of those patients. Regardless of clinical history, OCT was abnormal in 22/68 (32 %) patients. Therefore, OCT identified abnormalities suggestive of prior optic neuritis in 13/59 (22 %) TD patients without a clinical history of optic neuritis. If the optic nerve, as a firth topography, was assessed by OCT 39/68 (57 %) would fulfill McDonald criteria.
conclusionsOCT in patients presenting with TD lesions can frequently identify both clinical and subclinical optic neuritis. The addition of the optic nerve as a fifth topography assessed by OCT to fulfill dissemination in space criteria would allow additional TD patients to be diagnosed with MS.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.