National consensus on the diagnosis and treatment of neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorders

2025

Abstract

Devic's syndrome (disease) (neuromyelitis optica NMO) is now included in a Neuromyelitis Optica Spectrum Disorders (NMOSD) group that is yet to be determined. As brain syndromes also occur in NMO, the term NMOSD covers the full clinical spectrum and was proposed in 2015 by the International Panel for Neuromyelitis Optica (NMO) Diagnosis (IPND). First described over a century ago, neuromyelitis optica is a severe autoimmune inflammatory demyelinating disease of the central nervous system (CNS). The relationship between NMO and multiple sclerosis (MS) has long been debated, but since the discovery of the NMO-typical aquaporin-4 antibodies, NMO has been found to have clinical, MRI, laboratory, and immunopathological features different from those of MS. The so-called Asian optic-spinal multiple sclerosis belongs to this group and is no longer considered an MS variant.