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Because of the advent of a new influenza A H1N1 strain, many countries have begun mass immunisation programmes. Awareness of the background rates of possible adverse events will be a crucial part of assessment of possible vaccine safety concerns and will help to separate legitimate safety concerns from events that are temporally associated with but not caused by vaccination. We identified background rates of selected medical events for several countries. Rates of disease events varied by age, sex, method of ascertainment, and geography. Highly visible health conditions, such as Guillain-Barré syndrome, spontaneous abortion, or even death, will occur in coincident temporal association with novel influenza vaccination. On the basis of the reviewed data, if a cohort of 10 million individuals was vaccinated in the UK, 21·5 cases of Guillain-Barré syndrome and 5·75 cases of sudden death would be expected to occur within 6 weeks of vaccination as coincident background cases. In female vaccinees in the USA, 86·3 cases of optic neuritis per 10 million population would be expected within 6 weeks of vaccination. 397 per 1 million vaccinated pregnant women would be predicted to have a spontaneous abortion within 1 day of vaccination.

Parainfectious optic neuritis is a very rare cause of acute vision loss. We present a case of a 51-year-old man with a recent upper respiratory tract infection, presumably of viral aetiology, who showed up with complains of painless right eye vision loss, followed by the same symptoms on the left eye 3 weeks later. Ophthalmological examination revealed optic disc swelling (sequential in severity) which was confirmed by optic disc imaging. The remaining evaluations (lumbar puncture, MRI, laboratory and genetic testing) were completely normal. Considering a postviral aetiology, 5-day intravenous methylprednisolone treatment was performed. Follow-up examinations revealed slight visual acuity and visual fields recovery, with subsequent optic disc atrophy and microcystic macular oedema, bilaterally. This case illustrates how important a correct clinical history is to guide a correct diagnosis and posterior management.

BackgroundQuantitative assessment of optic nerve damage is important in the evaluation of optic neuritis (ON) and multiple sclerosis (MS).ObjectiveTo detect optic nerve damage using optical coherence tomography (OCT) and OCT angiography in MS.MethodsPeripapillary retinal nerve fibre layer (NFL) thickness, macular ganglion cell complex (GCC) thickness and Optic Nerve Head Flow Index (ONH-FI) were measured. The ONH-FI was defined as flow signal averaged over the optic disc. Diagnostic accuracy was evaluated by the area under the receiver-operating characteristics curve (AROC).ResultsSixty-eight eyes of 45 MS participants and 55 eyes of 32 healthy controls (HCs) were analysed. Of MS eyes, 25 had a history of ON (MS+ON) and 43 didn’t (MS−ON). MS−ON and MS+ON eyes had reductions in ONH-FI (p=0.031 and p=0.001, respectively), GCC thickness (p=0.245 and p<0.001, respectively), and NFL thickness (p=0.003 and p=0.024, respectively), compared with HCs. The highest AROC (0.940) was achieved by the logistic regression combination of all three variables, which was significantly higher than other variables (p=0.018).ConclusionMS produces both retinal structural loss and decreased ONH perfusion in MS eyes with and without history of ON. The combination of perfusion and structural measurements enhances detection of optic nerve damage in MS. OCT angiography may be a useful additional retinal marker in evaluation of ON in MS.

A 44-year-old male patient with no past medical history presented 2 weeks after seropositive coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection with vision problems suggestive of optic neuritis. Radiological testing showed findings suspicious for acute bilateral optic neuritis. The patient had also anti-MOG antibodies. Whether this was an optic neuritis due to COVID-19, MOG antibody disease, or an activation of MOG antibody disease by COVID-19 is discussed in this case.

The whole world waiting for the elimination of COVID-19. This is a short series of three cases that presented with optic neuritis. On further inquiry, all had received the Covishield vaccine within 5-12 days just before the presentation, with no history of COVID-19 positive RT-PCR. The range of age was 27-48 years. All patients improved after pulse steroid therapy and are still under follow-up. After being plagued by COVID-19 for nearly 2 years, the whole world wishes for little more than complete eradication of the disease. Our country commenced the much-awaited vaccination drive from Jan 2021. Ophthalmic manifestations have appeared in many forms post-COVID-19, among which neuro-ophthalmic manifestations are infrequent. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of a short case series from our country presenting with optic neuritis after COVID-19 vaccination, without any sign of active infection.

Optic neuritis (ON) refers to conditions that involve inflammation of the optic nerve. Various autoantibodies have been found, which are associated with central nervous system inflammatory disorders and have provided much information about the immune targets and mechanisms that impact the prognosis, treatment, and recurrence of atypical ON. Therefore, neurologists and ophthalmologists together should work to find out clinical, laboratory, and imaging findings that may provide important clues to the etiology of atypical ON and its management. Various biomarkers have been identified to confirm and distinguish atypical optic neuritis from others. The purpose of this review is to present the current scenario of atypical ON and its clinical management.

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a multisystem autoimmune disease that can affect the ocular system, with retinal vasculitis and optic neuritis being rare but serious manifestations. We present a case of a 26-year-old female with newly diagnosed SLE who developed both retinal vasculitis and optic neuritis, leading to progressive visual impairment. She was successfully treated with methylprednisolone and rituximab, achieving significant visual recovery. A review of existing literature highlights the diagnostic challenges, pathophysiology, and optimal treatment strategies for such cases. Our findings emphasize the importance of early recognition and aggressive immunosuppressive therapy in improving patient outcomes.

Hepatitis E virus (HEV) infection is the most common form of viral hepatitis and is reported to cause neurological manifestation in up to 30% of diagnosed infections. We evaluated the medical reports of all patients ( n  = 29,994) who were discharged from the Department of Neurology of Ulm University between 01.01.2015 and 30.09.2022 to detect neurological manifestations of HEV . In addition, we retrospectively analyzed the serum samples of n  = 99 patients representing different neurological diseases possibly related to HEV for anti-HEV-IgM and anti-HEV-IgG. At the time of discharge from hospital, the etiology of neurological symptoms in these patients was unclear. Overall, five cases of extrahepatic neurological manifestation of HEV (defined as anti-HEV-IgM and HEV-IgG positive) could be detected. An increase of both, anti-IgM- and anti-IgG-serum levels was significantly more common in neuralgic amyotrophy/plexus neuritis/radiculitis than in AIDP/CIDP ( P  = 0.01), meningitis/encephalitis ( P  = 0.02), idiopathic peripheral facial paralysis ( P  = 0.02) and tension headache ( P  = 0.02). In 15% ( n  = 15 out of 99) of retrospectively analyzed serum samples, conspicuous positive anti-HEV-IgG levels were detected. This finding was most common in AIDP/CIDP. In conclusion, results of this study indicate neurological manifestation of HEV to be a rare but still underestimated course of disease, occurring at any age and gender. Therefore, testing for HEV should be considered in patients with neurological symptoms of unknown origin, especially in those with neuralgic amyotrophy/plexus neuritis.

To evaluate the prevalence of serum myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein antibody (MOG-Ab) and aquaporin-4 antibody (AQP4-Ab) in optic neuritis (ON) patients after severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection by cell-based indirect immunofluorescence assay (CBA). In this prospective case series study, 35 patients clinically diagnosed as ON and laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection from 8 December 2022 to 8 February 2023 were included. All patients' clinical and laboratory data were collected and analyzed. The mean age of the 35 patients (46 eyes) was 38.2 years (ranging from 6 to 69 years), and 17 cases were female patients. Thirty-three and two cases showed positive SARS-CoV-2 RNA test results before or shortly after ON onset, respectively. ON occurred unilaterally in 24 cases and bilaterally in 11 cases. Ophthalmic examination revealed swollen optic disc in 37 eyes, normal optic disc in 6 eyes, and temporally or wholly paled optic disc in 3 eyes. CBA revealed seropositive MOG-Ab in 10 cases and AQP4-Ab in 2 cases, respectively, of which 2 AQP4-Ab-seropositive cases and 1 MOG-Ab-seropositive case had a past medical history of ON. Most ON patients showed a rapid and dramatic response to pulse steroid therapy. The median of BCVA at the onset and at the last follow-up was 20/500 (ranging from light perception to 20/20) and 20/67 (ranging from counting fingers to 20/20), respectively. Serum MOG-Ab and AQP4-Ab were detected in 28.6% (10/35) and 5.7% (2/35) ON cases after SARS-CoV-2 infection. SARS-CoV-2 infection may trigger an onset or a relapse of ON, as well as the production of MOG-Ab.