Purpose: To analyze how far an ischemic component might have been involved in optic neuritis.
Case report: a 32-year-old man with symptoms characteristic for optic neuritis underwent extensive clinical, laboratory/serological and vascular examination for systemic associations and vascular involvement.
Results: The patient was found to have a temporary ocular blood flow dysregulation and increased plasma endothelin-1 levels which decreased after the acute phase of the optic nerve.
Conclusions: We conclude that there might be an ischemic component in this patient with optic neuritis and hypothesize that this ischemic component is at least in part due to a temporarily increased endothelin-1 level.
Copyright 2003 S. Karger AG, Basel