The Structural Properties of Major White Matter Tracts in Strabismic Amblyopia

In order to better understand whether white matter structural deficits are present in strabismic amblyopia, we performed a survey of the tissue properties of 28 major white matter tracts using diffusion and quantitative magnetic resonance imaging approaches. We used diffusion-based tensor modeling a...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Investigative ophthalmology & visual science 2015-08, Vol.56 (9), p.5152-5160
Main Authors: Duan, Yiran, Norcia, Anthony M, Yeatman, Jason D, Mezer, Aviv
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Aged
Amblyopia - complications
Amblyopia - pathology
Anisotropy
Brain Mapping
Corpus Callosum - pathology
Diffusion Tensor Imaging - methods
Eye Movements, Strabismus, Amblyopia and Neuro-Ophthalmology
Female
Humans
Image Processing, Computer-Assisted
Male
Middle Aged
Occipital Lobe - pathology
Strabismus - complications
Strabismus - pathology
White Matter - pathology
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Summary:In order to better understand whether white matter structural deficits are present in strabismic amblyopia, we performed a survey of the tissue properties of 28 major white matter tracts using diffusion and quantitative magnetic resonance imaging approaches. We used diffusion-based tensor modeling and a new quantitative T1 protocol to measure fractional anisotropy (FA), mean diffusivity (MD), and myelin-sensitive T1 values. We surveyed tracts in the occipital lobe, including the vertical occipital fasciculus (VOF)-a newly rediscovered tract that bridges dorsal and ventral areas of the occipital lobe, as well as tracts across the rest of the brain. Adults with long-standing strabismic amblyopia show tract-specific elevations in MD. We rank-ordered the tracts on the basis of their MD effect-size. The four most affected tracts were the anterior frontal corpus callosum (ACC), the right VOF, the left inferior longitudinal fasciculus (ILF) and the left optic radiation. The results suggest that most white matter tissue properties are relatively robust to the early visual insult caused by strabismus. However, strabismic amblyopia does affect MD, not only in occipital tracts, such as the VOF and optic radiation, but also in long range association tracts connecting visual cortex to the frontal and temporal lobes (ILF) and connecting the two hemispheres (ACC).
ISSN:1552-5783
0146-0404
1552-5783
DOI:10.1167/iovs.15-17097