More on differential diagnosis of demyelinating and hereditary diseases

Abstract

Demyelinating diseases are heterogeneous group including multiple sclerosis (MS), acute multiple encephalomyelitis, opticoneuromyelitis (ONM), idiopathic transverse myelitis, optical neuritis. The spectrum of differential diagnostic screening in this rare autoimmune disease is variable, including hereditary/neurodegenerative diseases. The similarity of some mitochondrial diseases (MD) with MS is not accidental, since currently etiopathogenesis of MS is considered not only as autoimmune demyelination, but also as neurodegeneration, one of the important pathogenetic mechanisms of which is mitochondrial dysfunction. The article provides a brief analysis of patients with impaired visual functions and atypical clinical-diagnostic picture for MS. The selection criterion for patients was a primary clinical episode caused by a presumably inflammatory demyelinating process and complaints of decreased visual functions.