Comparison of Optical Coherence Tomography with Corpus Callosum Index in Assessing Cognitive Dysfunction Among Multiple Sclerosis Patients

Background: Multiple sclerosis is a neurodegenerative disease of the central nervous system. Previous studies have demonstrated that optical coherence tomography (OCT) is an inexpensive and accessible tool to evaluate the progress of multiple sclerosis (MS). Objective: In the current study, OCT and corpus callosum index (CCI) were compared for early evaluation of axonal damages such as cognitive dysfunction in MS patients. Methods: The corpus callosum index of thirty MS patients and 30 age- and sex-matched healthy controls were assessed by MRI. In addition, the cognitive function of MS patients was evaluated by the Brief International Cognitive Assessment for MS (BICAMS) test, and retinal nerve fiber layer thickness was measured by OCT. Results: The findings of our study demonstrated that CCI among patients with impaired cognition was lower than in the control groups, and there was no significant correlation between cognitive status and CCI (P value=0.804). Among the impaired cognition group, 81.8% of patients had abnormal OCT, while only two patients had normal OCT. Furthermore, our data showed a significant difference between OCT and cognition (P value=0.026). Conclusion: According to this study, OCT is a useful method in the evaluation of axonal loss and to predict cognitive dysfunction in MS patients compared to CCI or other measures.