Combination of blood oxygen level–dependent functional magnetic resonance imaging and visual evoked potential recordings for abnormal visual cortex in two types of amblyopia

Purpose To elucidate the different neuromechanisms of subjects with strabismic and anisometropic amblyopia compared with normal vision subjects using blood oxygen level–dependent functional magnetic resonance imaging (BOLD-fMRI) and pattern-reversal visual evoked potential (PR-VEP). Methods Fifty-three subjects, age range seven to 12 years, diagnosed with strabismic amblyopia (17 cases), anisometropic amblyopia (20 cases), and normal vision (16 cases), were examined using the BOLD-fMRI and PR-VEP of UTAS-E3000 techniques. Cortical activation by binocular viewing of reversal checkerboard patterns was examined in terms of the calcarine region of interest (ROI)-based and spatial frequency–dependent analysis. The correlation of cortical activation in fMRI and the P100 amplitude in VEP were analyzed using the SPSS 12.0 software package. Results In the BOLD-fMRI procedure, reduced areas and decreased activation levels were found in Brodmann area (BA) 17 and other extrastriate areas in subjects with amblyopia compared with the normal vision group. In general, the reduced areas mainly resided in the striate visual cortex in subjects with anisometropic amblyopia. In subjects with strabismic amblyopia, a more significant cortical impairment was found in bilateral BA 18 and BA 19 than that in subjects with anisometropic amblyopia. The activation by high-spatial-frequency stimuli was reduced in bilateral BA 18 and 19 as well as BA 17 in subjects with anisometropic amblyopia, whereas the activation was mainly reduced in BA 18 and BA 19 in subjects with strabismic amblyopia. These findings were further confirmed by the ROI-based analysis of BA 17. During spatial frequency–dependent VEP detection, subjects with anisometropic amblyopia had reduced sensitivity for high spatial frequency compared to subjects with strabismic amblyopia. The cortical activation in fMRI with the calcarine ROI-based analysis of BA 17 was significantly correlated with the P100 amplitude in VEP recording. Conclusions This study suggested that different types of amblyopia had different cortical responses and combinations of spatial frequency–dependent BOLD-fMRI with PR-VEP could differentiate among various kinds of amblyopia according to the different cortical responses. This study can supply new methods for amblyopia neurology study.

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