Bilateral optic neuropathy with remission in young men. Variation on a theme by Leber?

Five young men had painless, progressive, bilateral loss of central vision with late optic atrophy. One had a family history of Leber's optic neuropathy. After being functionally blind for four to 21 months, spontaneous improvement began leading to remarkable recovery of vision in all patients. We propose that these are cases of Leber's optic neuropathy in which an unusual capacity for recovery may have been related to a lack of microvascular abnormalities in the fundi.