The Impact of Vitamin D Status on Recovery from Optic Neuritis

Optic neuritis (ON) is a common manifestation of multiple sclerosis (MS), and serves as a model to study the effects of inflammatory and degenerative activity in this central nervous system(CNS) disorder. Vitamin D insufficiency is a risk factor for MS and ameliorates inflammation. The objective of this study is to study the relationship between vitamin D status and ON recovery, by using optical coherence tomography (OCT) measures of retinal integrity. The hypothesis is that vitamin D sufficiency (25(OH)D > 80 nmol/L) is associated with better OCT outcomes. Primary outcomes include retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) thickness , inter-eye differences (IED) in RNFL thickness and ganglion cell layer (GCL) thickness at 6 months and at baseline between vitamin D sufficient and insufficient groups.