Q:
What is Devic’s disease?
A:
Devic’s disease, or Devic’s syndrome, also called neuromyelitis optica (NMO), is an acute or subacute demyelinating lesion that occurs simultaneously or sequentially in the optic nerve and spinal cord.
The disease was firstly described by Devic (1894), whose clinical features are monocular or binocular blindness with acute or subacute onset. It may be associated with traversal or ascending myelitis a few days or weeks before or after the onset.
The data show that NMO accounts for 1%-22% of all demyelinating diseases, with low proportion in Western countries, and high proportion of non-Caucasians.
Keyword: devic’s disease.
