Clinical Characteristics of Anti-aquaporin 4 Antibody Positive Optic Neuritis in Japan

ABSTRACT

To investigate the clinical characteristics and the effectiveness of maintenance therapy of anti-AQP4 antibody positive optic neuritis in Japanese patients, medical records from 69 patients (103 eyes) were retrospective reviewed. The status of relapse in patients who received maintenance therapy following acute therapy was compared with that before maintenance therapy in patients who started maintenance therapy ≥6 months after acute therapy. In Japan, anti-AQP4 antibody positive optic neuritis was characterized by older onset age and poor visual outcome. The yearly rate and total number of relapses were lower when maintenance therapy was followed immediately after acute therapy.

KEYWORDS:

• Maintenance therapy
• anti-aquaporin 4 antibody
• Japanese
• optic neuritis
• neuromyeritis optica

Disclosure Statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors are solely responsible for the contents and writing of the article.

Additional information

Funding

This work was not funded.