Abstract
Small vertical cystoid voids have been found in the macular inner nuclear layer of patients with multiple sclerosis and were thought to indicate faster disease progression. Later it was found that this “microcystic macular edema” (MME) was caused indirectly by optic neuropathy and does not represent a primary multiple sclerosis lesion. MME has now been described in optic neuropathy of almost any known cause. It is associated with ganglion cell loss and thickening of the inner nuclear layer; it is located in a ring around the fovea, not affecting the fovea itself. Fluorescein angiography showed no leakage indicating a nonvascular origin of the edema. The combined changes have been summarized as retrograde maculopathy and can be readily distinguished from the longer known cystoid macular edema. The clinical significance of this novel clinical sign remains to be determined.
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The author received financial support from the Swiss National Science Foundation.
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Abegg, M. (2016). Retrograde Maculopathy. In: Petzold, A. (eds) Optical Coherence Tomography in Multiple Sclerosis. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-20970-8_10
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-20970-8_10
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