[Long-term prolongation of direct pupillary light reflex latency and P100 latency of pattern visual evoked potential in unilateral optic neuritis].

We evaluated the visual functions of visual acuity, color sense, direct pupillary light reflex and pattern visual evoked potentials (P100) in five patients with unilateral optic neuritis whose visual acuity improved to 1.0 or better in order to assess the recovery of the impaired optic nerve fibers from the inflammatory process. During follow-up periods the direct light pupillary reflex was electropupillographically recorded and the P100 latency of visual evoked potentials was examined in both eyes. The temporal course of their differences showed a biphasic curve: the acute stage showed a rapid decrease of the differences and the chronic stage showed a flat line analysis of Pearson's correlation coefficient revealed that latency differences were mutually altered although there was a tendency for differences of direct pupillary reflex latency to decrease more rapidly at the acute stage than those of P100 latency. The present study demonstrated that the two different classes of the optic nerve fibers originating from the retinal ganglion cells, pupillary reflex-related fibers and form vision-related fibers, were damaged to the same degree by the inflammation, in spite of their morphological differences.