he Biostatistics Center served as the data coordinating center for the ONTT, a randomized, distributed data entry, 15-center clinical trial of 457 patients to evaluate the benefit of corticosteroid treatment of optic neuritis and to investigate the relationship between optic neuritis and multiple sclerosis. The study's structure consisted of 15 clinical centers and three central units: Study Headquarters, Data Coordinating Center and Visual Field Reading Center. The trial established that intravenous methylprednisolone sped recovery of visual function without significantly improving long-term visual outcomes and was also associated with a reduced incidence of symptomatic multiple sclerosis; oral prednisone not only failed to demonstrate any benefit compared to placebo but was further associated with an increased risk of recurrence of optic neuritis (NEJM 326:9, 1992; and NEJM 329:24, 1993). Grant from NEI, 1987-1993.

The ONTT has published more than 25 reports that present the results of the ONTT.