Sensitivity of visual evoked potentials and spectral domain optical coherence tomography in early relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis

•We have compared Spectral Domain Optical Coherence Tomography to Visual-evoked potentials in early relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis (less than 5 years since diagnosis).•Visual Evoked Potentials showed higher prevalence of abnormalities compared to Spectral Domain Optical Coherence Tomography.•There was significant negative correlation between the latency of Visual Evoked Potentials and retinal nerve fiber layer thickness and the ganglion cell/inner plexiform layer.•Visual Evoked Potentials may be more sensitive in detecting occult visual pathway lesions in early relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis.

BackgroundVisual evoked potentials and spectral-domain optical coherence tomography are common ancillary studies that assess the visual pathways from a functional and structural aspect, respectively.ObjectiveTo compare prevalence of abnormalities of Visual evoked potentials (VEP) and spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SDOCT) in patients with relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS).MethodsA cross-sectional study of 100 eyes with disease duration of less than 5 years since the diagnosis. Correlation between retinal nerve fiber layer and ganglion-cell/inner plexiform layer with pattern-reversal visual evoked potentials amplitude and latency and contrast sensitivity was performed.ResultsThe prevalence of abnormalities in pattern-reversal visual VEP was 56% while that of SOCT was 48% in all eyes. There was significant negative correlations between the average RNFL (r=−0.34, p=0.001) and GCIPL (r=−0.39, p<0.001) with VEP latency. In eyes with prior optic neuritis, a significant negative correlation was seen between average RNFL (r=−0.33, p=0.037) and GCIPL (r=−0.40, p=0.010) with VEP latency.ConclusionsWe have found higher prevalence of VEP abnormalities than SCOCT in early relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis. This suggests that VEP has a higher sensitivity for detecting lesions of the visual pathway in patients with early RRMS.