Clinical evaluation of optic atrophy in patients with neurological disorders

Objectives: Optic atrophy is a pathological term applied to optic nerve shrinkage from any process that produces degeneration of axons in the anterior visual system (the retino-geniculate pathway). The pathologist can make the diagnosis of optic atrophy by direct observation of the histopathological changes in the optic nerve. The clinician is restricted to indirect evidence by observing the optic nerve as it enters the eye and through testing its function. Methods: Fifty patients with bilateral or unilateral optic atrophy, were collected randomly from several teaching hospitals in Baghdad, Iraq, between August 1998 and June 1999. Those patients included in this study had ophthalmoscopic abnormalities of the optic disc in addition to defective visual function that could be localized to the optic nerve. ABSTRACT 262