Table 3.

Differentiating features of the three demyelinating disorders

Characteristics	MS-ON (Typical)	AQP4-ON	MOG-ON
Gender	Female predominance (60%-75%)	Female predominance (90%)	Equal distribution
Laterality	Unilateral	Unilateral or bilateral	Bilateral
Visual loss	Mild to moderate	Severe	Moderate to severe
Fundus presentation	RBN	RBN > papillitis	Papillitis
Myelitis/encephalitis	Rare	LETM is common	ADEM is common
Associated diseases	None	Commonly associated with Sjogren’s syndrome, SLE and sarcoidosis	None
Visual outcome	Good	Poor	Good
Relapse	Common, but less than NMO	Common	Very common
MRI of Optic nerve	Retrobulbar, focal lesion involving <50% of length	Retrobulbar and intracranial with chiasmal and optic tract involvement. Longitudinal lesion >50% length is involved	Retrobulbar, longitudinal lesion involving >50% length. Perineural sheath and perineural orbital tissue enhancement
MRI Brain
Area involved	Periventricular, Infratentorial, juxtacortical and subcortical lesions	hypothalamus, thalamus, pituitary, area postrema, brain stem	Supratentorial and cerebellum
Type of lesion	Ovid, discrete, arranged perpendicular to ventricles	Confluent, longitudinal and parallel to ventricle	Confluent, longitudinal
MRI spine	Short, peripheral and involving <3 vertebrae	Longitudinal, central and involve >3 continuous vertebrae Involves cervical and thoracic spine	Longitudinal, central, and involve >3 continuous vertebrae Lower spine involving cauda equina
CSF	Oligoclonal bands are seen	Pleocytosis with PMN and eosinophils	Pleocytosis may be seen Oligoclonal bands are not seen