Malania, Maka and Konrad, Julia and Jaegle, Herbert and Werner, John S. and Greenlee, Mark W. (2017) Compromised Integrity of Central Visual Pathways in Patients With Macular Degeneration. INVESTIGATIVE OPHTHALMOLOGY & VISUAL SCIENCE, 58 (7). pp. 2939-2947. ISSN 0146-0404, 1552-5783
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PURPOSE. Macular degeneration (MD) affects the central retina and leads to gradual loss of foveal vision. Although, photoreceptors are primarily affected in MD, the retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) and central visual pathways may also be altered subsequent to photoreceptor degeneration. Here we investigate whether retinal damage caused by MD alters microstructural properties of visual pathways using diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging. METHODS. Six MD patients and six healthy control subjects participated in the study. Retinal images were obtained by spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT). Diffusion tensor images (DTI) and high-resolution T1-weighted structural images were collected for each subject. We used diffusion-based tensor modeling and probabilistic fiber tractography to identify the optic tract (OT) and optic radiations (OR), as well as nonvisual pathways (corticospinal tract and anterior fibers of corpus callosum). Fractional anisotropy (FA) and axial and radial diffusivity values (AD, RD) were calculated along the nonvisual and visual pathways. RESULTS. Measurement of RNFL thickness reveals that the temporal circumpapillary retinal nerve fiber layer was significantly thinner in eyes with macular degeneration than normal. While we did not find significant differences in diffusion properties in nonvisual pathways, patients showed significant changes in diffusion scalars (FA, RD, and AD) both in OT and OR. CONCLUSIONS. The results indicate that the RNFL and the white matter of the visual pathways are significantly altered in MD patients. Damage to the photoreceptors in MD leads to atrophy of the ganglion cell axons and to corresponding changes in microstructural properties of central visual pathways.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | NERVE-FIBER LAYER; VOXEL-BASED MORPHOMETRY; HUMAN CEREBRAL-CORTEX; OPTIC-NERVE; NEURAL DEGENERATION; STARGARDT DISEASE; NATURAL-HISTORY; DIFFUSION MRI; WHITE-MATTER; DOMAIN OCT; diffusion tensor imaging; white matter tracts; age-related macular degeneration; juvenile macular dystrophy |
| Subjects: | 100 Philosophy & psychology > 150 Psychology 600 Technology > 610 Medical sciences Medicine |
| Divisions: | Medicine > Lehrstuhl für Augenheilkunde Psychology and Pedagogy > Institut für Psychologie > Lehrstuhl für Psychologie I (Allgemeine Psychologie I und Methodenlehre) - Prof. Dr. Mark W. Greenlee |
| Depositing User: | Dr. Gernot Deinzer |
| Date Deposited: | 14 Dec 2018 13:10 |
| Last Modified: | 28 Feb 2019 11:31 |
| URI: | https://pred.uni-regensburg.de/id/eprint/750 |
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