Effects of vitamin D on retinal nerve fiber layer in vitamin D deficient patients with optic neuritis: Preliminary findings of a randomized,placebo-controlled trial

Background: there is accumulating evidence for a possible protective role of vitamin d in the development and disease course of multiple sclerosis. whether vitamin d is also effective in treating patients with optic neuritis (on) is not known. the aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of oral vitamin d on the thickness of retinal nerve fiber layer (rnfl) in vitamin d deficient patients with on by optical coherence tomography. materials and methods: a phase ii placebo-controlled randomized clinical trial conducted between july 2011 and november 2012 included 52 patients with confirmed unilateral on aged 15-38 years and low serum 25-hydroxyvitamin d levels. the main outcome measures were changes in thickness of rnfl and macula 6 months after treatment. patients were randomly allocated to receive 6 months of treatment with adding either 50,000 iu/ week vitamin d or placebo. results: in the 27 patients treated with vitamin d,the mean (standard deviation [sd]) thickness of rnfl decreased from 111.3 (18.9) µm at baseline to 91.4 (13.3) at the end of study period (p < 0.001). correspondingly,in the 25 patients treated with placebo,the mean (sd) thickness of rnfl decreased from 113.7 (21.5) µm at baseline to 96.1 (12.3) at the end of study period (p < 0.01). in both groups,the mean thickness of the macula did not changed (p > 0.05). average thickness of rnfl at the end of trial did not differ between groups. conclusion: adding vitamin d to routine disease therapy had no significant effect on the thickness of rnfl or macula in patients with on. this trial is registered on www.clinicaltrials. gov (id nct01465893). © 2015,isfahan university of medical sciences(iums). all rights reserved.