Correlation of the measurements of optical coherence tomography and diffuse tension imaging of optic pathways in amblyopia

The aim of this study was to investigate whether a correlation exists between optical coherence tomography (OCT) of retina and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) of the optic pathway measurements. All subjects underwent OCT measurements of optic nerve head, retinal nerve fiber layer, and macula. Fractional anisotropy (FA) and apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) values of optic pathways were analyzed using DTI. Prechiasmatic FA values were significantly decreased in unilateral amblyopic group in both affected and sound fellow eyes (p = 0.019 and 0.013), but not in bilateral amblyopic group (p = 0.221) when compared with the control group. ADC values were significantly greater in sound eye in unilateral amblyopic group in prechiasmatic and postchiasmatic regions (p = 0.001 and 0.049). ADC values were also significantly greater in bilateral amblyopic group in postchiasmatic region (p = 0.037). There were no significant differences between the affected eye and sound eye side DTI measurements. There was no significant correlation between prechiasmatic DTI and OCT measurements in affected and sound eyes of unilateral amblyopia group. DTI results demonstrated that there is a functional underdevelopment of the anterior and posterior visual pathways in both affected and sound eye of unilateral amblyopic patients. Significantly reduced FA values in prechiasmatic region where OCT values of retina were normal can be explained by possible micro-structural changes.

[1]  Chun-quan Cai,et al.  Grey and white matter changes in children with monocular amblyopia: voxel-based morphometry and diffusion tensor imaging study , 2013, British Journal of Ophthalmology.

[2]  Ching-Yu Cheng,et al.  Retinal nerve fiber layer thickness in unilateral amblyopia. , 2004, Investigative ophthalmology & visual science.

[3]  R. Hess,et al.  Amblyopia: site unseen , 2001, Clinical & experimental optometry.

[4]  Robert F Hess,et al.  Deficient responses from the lateral geniculate nucleus in humans with amblyopia , 2009, The European journal of neuroscience.

[5]  Savas Ceylan,et al.  Evaluation of early visual recovery in pituitary macroadenomas after endoscopic endonasal transphenoidal surgery: Quantitative assessment with diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) , 2011, Acta Neurochirurgica.

[6]  R F Hess,et al.  The cortical deficit in humans with strabismic amblyopia , 2001, The Journal of physiology.

[7]  G. Pearlson,et al.  Diffusion Tensor Imaging and Axonal Tracking in the Human Brainstem , 2001, NeuroImage.

[8]  Rainer Goebel,et al.  High-resolution diffusion tensor imaging and tractography of the human optic chiasm at 9.4 T , 2008, NeuroImage.

[9]  G. Rogers,et al.  Amblyopia: the normal eye is not normal. , 1990, Journal of pediatric ophthalmology and strabismus.

[10]  R. Hess,et al.  Interocular suppression in strabismic amblyopia results in an attenuated and delayed hemodynamic response function in early visual cortex. , 2011, Journal of vision.

[11]  Ravi S. Menon,et al.  BOLD fMRI response of early visual areas to perceived contrast in human amblyopia. , 2000, Journal of neurophysiology.

[12]  Richard Watts,et al.  Diffusion-tensor MR imaging in children with developmental delay: preliminary findings. , 2003, Radiology.

[13]  P. Pantano,et al.  DTI Measurements in Multiple Sclerosis: Evaluation of Brain Damage and Clinical Implications , 2013, Multiple sclerosis international.

[14]  Stephen J Anderson,et al.  Neuroimaging in Human Amblyopia , 2006, Strabismus.

[15]  Susumu Mori,et al.  Diffusion-tensor MR imaging and fiber tractography: a new method of describing aberrant fiber connections in developmental CNS anomalies. , 2005, Radiographics : a review publication of the Radiological Society of North America, Inc.

[16]  N. Yüksel,et al.  Thickness of the retinal nerve fiber layer, macular thickness, and macular volume in patients with strabismic amblyopia. , 2005, Journal of pediatric ophthalmology and strabismus.

[17]  Behzad Mansouri,et al.  The perceptual consequences of interocular suppression in amblyopia. , 2011, Investigative ophthalmology & visual science.

[18]  Leonard E White,et al.  Diffusion tensor imaging assessment of brain white matter maturation during the first postnatal year. , 2007, AJR. American journal of roentgenology.

[19]  Long-Biao Cui,et al.  Association of Optic Radiation Integrity with Cortical Thickness in Children with Anisometropic Amblyopia , 2016, Neuroscience Bulletin.

[20]  C. Beaulieu,et al.  The basis of anisotropic water diffusion in the nervous system – a technical review , 2002, NMR in biomedicine.

[21]  Y Tamagawa,et al.  Adult and neonatal human brain: diffusional anisotropy and myelination with diffusion-weighted MR imaging. , 1991, Radiology.

[22]  V. Gk,et al.  Concomitant strabismus and cortical eye dominance in young rhesus monkeys. , 1979 .

[23]  Steven D Chen,et al.  Diffusion-tensor imaging assessment of white matter maturation in childhood and adolescence. , 2011, AJR. American journal of roentgenology.

[24]  K. Chatzistefanou,et al.  Contrast sensitivity in amblyopia: the fellow eye of untreated and successfully treated amblyopes. , 2005, Journal of AAPOS : the official publication of the American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus.

[25]  S. Karamursel,et al.  The Morpho-functional Evaluation of Retina in Amblyopia , 2013, Current eye research.

[26]  A. Snyder,et al.  Diffusion tensor imaging reveals white matter reorganization in early blind humans. , 2006, Cerebral cortex.

[27]  A. Norcia,et al.  The Structural Properties of Major White Matter Tracts in Strabismic Amblyopia. , 2015, Investigative ophthalmology & visual science.

[28]  G. Gong,et al.  Underdevelopment of optic radiation in children with amblyopia: a tractography study. , 2007, American journal of ophthalmology.

[29]  R. A. Zimmerman,et al.  Changes in brain water diffusion during childhood , 1999, Neuroradiology.

[30]  F. Duffy,et al.  Microiontophoretic bicuculline restores binocular responses to visual cortical neurons in strabismic cats , 1984, Brain Research.

[31]  D. Regan,et al.  Defective processing of motion-defined form in the fellow eye of patients with unilateral amblyopia. , 1992, Investigative ophthalmology & visual science.