Nucci, Carlo;
Garaci, Francesco;
Altobelli, Simone;
Di Cio, Francesco;
Martucci, Alessio;
Aiello, Francesco;
Lanzafame, Simona;
... Toschi, Nicola; + view all
(2020)
Diffusional Kurtosis Imaging of White Matter Degeneration in Glaucoma.
Journal of Clinical Medicine
, 9
(10)
, Article 3122. 10.3390/jcm9103122.
Preview |
PDF
Diffusional Kurtosis Imaging of White Matter Degeneration in Glaucoma.pdf - Accepted Version Download (3MB) | Preview |
Abstract
Glaucoma is an optic neuropathy characterized by death of retinal ganglion cells and loss of their axons, progressively leading to blindness. Recently, glaucoma has been conceptualized as a more diffuse neurodegenerative disorder involving the optic nerve and also the entire brain. Consistently, previous studies have used a variety of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques and described widespread changes in the grey and white matter of patients. Diffusion kurtosis imaging (DKI) provides additional information as compared with diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), and consistently provides higher sensitivity to early microstructural white matter modification. In this study, we employ DKI to evaluate differences among healthy controls and a mixed population of primary open angle glaucoma patients ranging from stage I to V according to Hodapp–Parrish–Anderson visual field impairment classification. To this end, a cohort of patients affected by primary open angle glaucoma (n = 23) and a group of healthy volunteers (n = 15) were prospectively enrolled and underwent an ophthalmological evaluation followed by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) using a 3T MR scanner. After estimating both DTI indices, whole-brain, voxel-wise statistical comparisons were performed in white matter using Tract-Based Spatial Statistics (TBSS). We found widespread differences in several white matter tracts in patients with glaucoma relative to controls in several metrics (mean kurtosis, kurtosis anisotropy, radial kurtosis, and fractional anisotropy) which involved localization well beyond the visual pathways, and involved cognitive, motor, face recognition, and orientation functions amongst others. Our findings lend further support to a causal brain involvement in glaucoma and offer alternative explanations for a number of multidomain impairments often observed in glaucoma patients.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Diffusional Kurtosis Imaging of White Matter Degeneration in Glaucoma |
| Location: | Switzerland |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.3390/jcm9103122 |
| Publisher version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/jcm9103122 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third-party material in this article are included in the Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
| Keywords: | Science & Technology, Life Sciences & Biomedicine, Medicine, General & Internal, General & Internal Medicine, primary open angle glaucoma, diffusional kurtosis imaging, diffusion tensor imaging, magnetic resonance imaging, WORD FORM AREA, VISUAL VARIANT, ALZHEIMERS-DISEASE, CORPUS-CALLOSUM, FUSIFORM GYRUS, FACE AREA, PERCEPTION, MRI, ASSOCIATION, STATISTICS |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences |
| URI: | https://discovery-pp.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10188347 |
Archive Staff Only
 |
View Item |
