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Homonymous Hemimacular Thinning: A Unique Presentation of Optic Tract Injury in Neuromyelitis Optica
Journal of Neuro-Ophthalmology, 06/26/2012
Romero RS et al. – A 42–year–old African American woman with a 5–year history of neuromyelitis optica was found to have an incongruous homonymous hemianopia. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) showed corresponding left homonymous hemimacular thinning. Magnetic resonance imaging of the brain demonstrated a demyelinating lesion in the left optic tract (OT) just anterior to the lateral geniculate nucleus and diffusion tensor magnetic resonance tractography confirmed axonal fiber loss in the left OT. This case illustrates the complementary and confirmatory roles of visual field testing, macular OCT, and neuroimaging in an OT lesion, which caused selective hemimacular thinning through retrograde degeneration.