Editors Selection (IGR: 13-2) | International Glaucoma Review #610

Editors Selection IGR 13-2

IOP, VF, Imaging and Electrophysiology: Principles of novel imaging techniques

Comment by Yeni Yucel on:

21935 Advances in neuroimaging of the visual pathways and their use in glaucoma, Garaci FG; Cozzolino V; Nucci C et al., Progress in Brain Research, 2008; 173: 165-177

The paper by Garaci et al. (1347) is an excellent resource for understanding principles of novel neuroimaging techniques, and discusses their application to the study of glaucoma. Based on neuropathological studies in experimental non-human primate glaucoma¹ and human glaucoma,² neuroradiologic findings may be expected in vision pathways in patients with glaucoma. Atrophy of the lateral geniculate nucleus has been recently described in human glaucoma by conventional MRI.³

To be able to apply novel neuroimaging techniques to larger glaucoma populations, normative neuro-imaging databases, accounting also for age, are needed

Technological advances such as diffusion tensor and functional MRI may also be powerful research tools to assess visual pathways in glaucoma, and in fact, reduced visual cortical activity⁴ has been detected in patients. In both of these human studies, patients with specific patterns of visual field defects were evaluated. To be able to apply these approaches to larger glaucoma populations, normative neuro-imaging databases, accounting also for age, are needed.

Our understanding of glaucomatous disease, its progression and the effects of novel treatment strategies will continue to advance as multidisciplinary research teams with state-of-the-art neuro-imaging technology and expertise come together.

References

Gupta, N. and Y.H. Yucel, Glaucoma as a neurodegenerative disease. Curr Opin Ophthalmol, 2007. 18(2): p. 110-4.
Gupta, N., et al., Human glaucoma and neural degeneration in intracranial optic nerve, lateral geniculate nucleus, and visual cortex. Br J Ophthalmol, 2006. 90(6): p. 674-8.
Gupta, N., et al., Atrophy of the lateral geniculate nucleus in human glaucoma detected by magnetic resonance imaging. Br J Ophthalmol, 2009. 93(1): p. 56-60.
Duncan, R.O., et al., Retinotopic organization of primary visual cortex in glaucoma: Comparing fMRI measurements of cortical function with visual field loss. Prog Retin Eye Res, 2007. 26(1): p. 38-56.

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Issue 13-2

Table of Contents Editor's Selection