Nonarteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy is associated with cerebral small vessel disease

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 14; no. 11; p. e0225322
• Main Authors: Kim, Min Seok, Jeong, Han Yeong, Cho, Kwan Hyuk, Oh, Seung Won, Byun, Seong Jun, Woo, Se Joon, Yang, Hee Kyung, Hwang, Jeong Min, Park, Kyu Hyung, Kim, Chi Kyung, Park, Sang Jun
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 14.11.2019; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Adult; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Biology and Life Sciences; Blood vessels; Brain; Brain research; Cerebral Small Vessel Diseases - complications; Cerebral Small Vessel Diseases - diagnosis; Cerebral Small Vessel Diseases - etiology; Comorbidity; Dementia; Diabetes; Diabetes mellitus; Diabetic neuropathy; Diabetic retinopathy; Diagnostic imaging; Dyslipidemia; Eye diseases; Female; Glaucoma; Health aspects; Hospitals; Humans; Hypertension; Ischemia; Magnetic resonance; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Male; Medical records; Medical schools; Medical screening; Medicine; Medicine and Health Sciences; Metabolic disorders; Middle Aged; Mortality; Neuroimaging; Neurological complications; Neurology; Neuropathy; NMR; Nuclear magnetic resonance; Odds Ratio; Optic neuropathy; Optic Neuropathy, Ischemic - complications; Optic Neuropathy, Ischemic - diagnosis; Optic Neuropathy, Ischemic - etiology; Patients; Regression analysis; Research and Analysis Methods; Retrospective Studies; Sex; Smoking; Stroke; Vascular diseases; Veins & arteries; South Korea
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0225322

We investigated the presence of cerebral small vessel disease (SVD) in patients with nonarteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy (NAION) compared to control subjects without NAION to identify the association between NAION and cerebral SVD. We retrospectively reviewed the cases of 63 patients with NAION and 2749 control subjects without any neurologic and ocular diseases including NAION who underwent careful medical interviews, ophthalmic examinations, and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies of the brain. We assessed and compared the degree of cerebral SVD on the MRIs. The patients with NAION presented with cerebral SVD more frequently than controls (68% versus 37%, respectively, p<0.001), which was also observed after adjusting for age, sex, comorbid conditions including hypertension, diabetes, and dyslipidemia, and smoking using the standardized mortality ratio (68% vs. 37%, p<0.001). A multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that the odds of cerebral SVD were 4.86 (95% CI, 2.10 to 11.24, p<0.001) times higher in patients with NAION than in the controls. We found that there was an association between cerebral SVD and NAION even after adjusting for age, sex, and medical histories. Clinicians should consider brain MRI scans in patients with NAION to prevent neurological impairment after cerebral SVD.