European Perspective - It Could Be MS

New international consensus criteria provide guidance on making a diagnosis of optic neuritis. Once a diagnosis is made, they provide further guidance on the classification of optic neuritis subgroups such as MS-ON. These guidelines have been developed in a three year long Delphi process. A consensus of more than 80% agreement was accepted and the CREDES guidelines for designing and reporting this process were followed. Prior to the guidelines the rate of misdiagnosis of of optic neuritis was reported to be around 60%. The clinical signs and symptoms which should alert clinicians to consider an alternative diagnosis other than MS-ON will be summarised.