COMPARATIVE STUDY OF OCULAR MANIFESTATIONS OF MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS IN TWO AGE GROUPS; 16 - 30 AND 31 -51 YEARS IN YAZD, IRAN FROM 2002 TILL 2005

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is one of those groups of diseases whose peculiarity is demyelination of the white matter of the central nervous system. Ocular disorders are one of the most common manifestations of the disease. The present study was therefore done to evaluate ocular complications in multiple sclerosis. This was a cross sectional observational study that included 50 multiple sclerosis patients referring to the ophthalmology and neurology clinics and departments affiliated to the Yazd, Medical Sciences University. All data was entered in a computer via SPSS software and analyzed by Chi-square and ANOVA statistical tests, thus results less than 0.05 was significant. Of the total, 16 (32%) were men and 34(68%) were women. The most frequent complication in the population under study was optic neuritis that was present in 30 patients (60%), nystagmus was present in 14 cases (28 %) and diplopia in 9 cases (18%). In the present study, optic neuritis was seen in 60 % (almost all cases with ocular pain and dischromatopsia), nystagmus in 28% and diplopia in 18% of the patients.