PHOENIX — Historically, optic nerve involvement has been excluded from multiple sclerosis (MS) diagnostic criteria, but its inclusion in the upcoming 2024 McDonald Diagnostic Criteria is expected to significantly accelerate the time to definitive diagnosis in patients with clinically isolated syndrome (CIS).

Driven by advances in imaging protocols and the evidence that it improves diagnostic specificity, “the optic nerve will now be included as a fifth topography,” said Peter Calabresi, MD, director of the Multiple Sclerosis Center, Johns Hopkins Medicine, Baltimore.

Although this is just one change from the 2017 McDonald Diagnostic Criteria aimed at facilitating diagnosis, those involved in the 2024 revisions consider the addition of this fifth topographical sign among the most signific

See Full Page