Abstract
Purpose :
To evaluate the occipital cortex in glaucomatous patients using 3-Tesla high-speed magnetic resonance (MR) imaging and its association with structural and functional damage in patients with glaucoma and controls.
Methods :
This was a cross-sectional prospective study including healthy volunteers and glaucoma patients. All participants performed SITA-standard 24-2 automated perimetry (SAP), frequency doubling perimetry (FDT) (psychophysical tests), optic disc stereophotograph, spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (Cirrus HD-OCT), and MR. Comparison between healthy control patients and glaucoma was performed using ttest. Correlation between MR findings and structural and functional damage was performed using linear regression.
Results :
30 glaucoma patients and 18 healthy volunteers were included. Mean age was 61.83±10.03 and 55.72±7.74 years in glaucoma and healthy group, respectively (p>0.05). Average SAP 24-2 mean deviation (MD) for glaucoma and healthy group were -10.20±9.67 dB and -1.60±2.30 dB, respectively (p<0.001). Average retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) thickness (Cirrus HD-OCT) for glaucoma and healthy group were 76.72±2.13 μm and 97.36±1.58 μm, respectively (p<0.001). There was a significant difference between the area of occipital pole in left hemisphere in glaucoma group (mean: 1253.90±149.34 mm2) and in the control group (mean: 1341.94±129.84 mm2), p=0.043. There was also a significant difference between the area of occipital pole in right hemisphere in glaucoma group (mean: 1910.50±309.44 mm2) and in the control group (mean: 2089.06±164.24 mm2), p=0.029. Regarding different glaucoma levels (mild, moderate and severe glaucoma according to SAP 24-2 MD level), there was a significant difference between area of occipital right and left hemisphere (p=0.003 and p=0.032, respectively). Area of occipital pole in the left hemisphere was significantly associated with SAP 24-2 MD, visual acuity, age and RNFL (p=0.001, P<0.001,p=0.010, p=0.006, respectively). Addionally, area of occipital pole in the right hemisphere was significantly associated with SAP MD, VFI, visual acuity, age and RNFL (p<0.001, p=0.007, P<0.001,p=0.046, p<0.001, respectively).
Conclusions :
Glaucoma patients presented a significant difference in area of occipital pole on the left and right hemisphere. Area of occipital pole was associated with functional and structural ocular parameters from glaucoma patients.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2017 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Baltimore, MD, May 7-11, 2017.