Assessing optic nerve integrity in optic neuritis with conventional magnetic resonance imaging.

Cohort studyAJNR. American journal of neuroradiology· May 2026

Assessing optic nerve integrity in optic neuritis with conventional magnetic resonance imaging.

Helena Sánchez-Ulloa, Neus Mongay-Ochoa, Manel Alberich … Jaume Sastre-Garriga

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Neuro-ophthalmologyCohort studyDiagnosisQ1IF 3.1

MRI-based inter-eye signal asymmetry detects optic nerve lesions in optic neuritis

Assessing optic nerve integrity in optic neuritis with conventional magnetic resonance imaging.

Helena Sánchez-Ulloa … Jaume Sastre-Garriga

AJNR. American journal of neuroradiology · May 2026 · Q1 in General Medicine

Background

The aim of this study was to investigate the integrity of the optic nerve using the ratio between T1WI and T2WI (T1/T2) MRI signal intensities, and to assess whether inter-eye differences could indicate the presence of lesions in the optic nerve.

Methods

The cohort included eighteen healthy controls and forty-nine individuals with multiple sclerosis; from those, thirty-two had a previous episode of optic neuritis.

Results

eye-detection accuracy from brain scan differences was good, correctly flagging most damaged nerves

0.61T1/T2

Lesion

0.74T1/T2

MS without ON

0.77T1/T2

Healthy

More results

Automated masks showed a moderate agreement with the reference segmentations (mean Dice coefficient ± SD = 0.53 ± 0.12).

Eyes with a visible lesion on MRI showed a significantly lower T1/T2 (mean ± SD = 0.61 ± 0.09) compared to other groups (multiple sclerosis without optic neuritis 0.74 ± 0.06, p<0.001; and healthy subjects 0.77 ± 0.09, p<0.001).

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Conclusion

The findings indicate that conventional MRI can provide clinically meaningful information regarding optic nerve integrity and support the development of automated tools for detecting optic nerve lesions.

Assessing optic nerve integrity in optic neuritis with conventional magnetic resonance imaging.

Assessing optic nerve integrity in optic neuritis with conventional magnetic resonance imaging.

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