Neuroptic Myelitis Versus Multiple Sclerosis

A combined lesion of the spinal cord and the optic nerve fibers is not uncommon. It occurs in multiple sclerosis, cerebrospinal syphilis, disseminated tumors of the central nervous system, encephalomyelitis, septicopyemia and so-called neuroptic myelitis (Devic's¹disease). Of the foregoing conditions, neuroptic myelitis has attracted a great deal of attention of late, and, as it usually runs an acute or subacute course (from two months to one year), it is often designated as acute multiple sclerosis or disseminated encephalomyelitis. For this reason it is generally not considered a specific disease process, though some (Michaux,²Sager and Grigoresco,³Merkel,⁴Delbeke and van Bogaert⁵) view it as a well defined clinical entity, different from acute disseminated encephalomyelitis or so-called acute multiple sclerosis. The results of histopathologic study of a case seem to favor the latter view, that neuroptic myelitis is a well defined clinical syndrome with definite