Neuromyelitis Optica - History

History

In 1870, Sir Thomas Clifford Allbutt first reported an association between myelitis and an optic nerve disorder. In 1894, Eugène Devic and his PhD student Fernand Gault described 16 patients who had lost vision in one or both eyes and within weeks developed severe spastic weakness of the limbs, loss of sensation and often bladder control. They recognized these symptoms were the result of inflammation of the optic nerve and spinal cord, respectively.

Similar instances of optic neuritis and myelitis were reported, and many believed it constituted a distinct clinical entity. However, some patients had pathology in other parts of the brain, a feature which was more suggestive of acute disseminated encephalomyelitis or MS.

In 2004, Mayo Clinic researchers identified the aquaporin 4 protein as the target of the disease and developed a test to aid in the diagnosis of Devic's disease by detection of an antibody, NMO-IgG, in the blood. Some patients with NMO may be seronegative for NMO-IgG, whilst some patients with NMO-IgG may still not fulfill clinical criteria for NMO thus serological testing is now an important part of the diagnostic procedure and seropositive and seronegative cases are described in a manner similar to myasthenia gravis. According to the Mayo Clinic report, this was the first time a molecular target had been identified for a type of demyelinating inflammatory disease.