Abstract
BackgroundGlaucoma is a collection of neurodegenerative diseases that affect both the retina and the central visual pathway. We investigated whether metabolites' concentrations changed in the geniculocalcarine (GCT) and the striate area of occipital lobe by proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H-MRS), suggesting neurodegeneration of the central visual pathway in primary glaucoma.Methodology/Principal Findings20 patients with glaucoma in both eyes were paired with 20 healthy volunteers in same gender and an age difference less than 3 years. All the participants were examined by MR imaging including T1 Flair, T2 FSE and 1H-MRS. The T1 intensity and T2 intensity of their GCTs and striate areas were measured. The ratio of N-acetylaspartate (NAA)/Creatine (Cr), Choline (Cho)/Cr, glutamine and glutamate (Glx)/Cr were derived by multi-voxels 1H-MRS in the GCT and the striate area of each brain hemisphere. The T1 intensity and T2 intensity had no difference between the groups. Significant decreases in NAA/Cr and Cho/Cr but no difference in Glx/Cr was found between the groups in both the GCT and the striate area.Conclusions/SignificancePrimary glaucoma affects metabolites' concentrations in the GCT and the striate area suggesting there is ongoing neurodegenerative process.
Highlights
Glaucoma is the second common cause of irreversible blindness worldwide [1]
We studied if the concentrations of the metabolites NAA, Cr, Cho and Glx in the GCT and the striate area were affected by primary glaucoma using multiple-voxels1H-MRS
Subjects Subjects with glaucoma were recruited from the Department of Ophthalmology, NanFang Hospital, Southern Medical University (Guangzhou, China) and ZhongShan Ophthalmic center, Sun Yat-sen University (Guangzhou, China).The group consisted of 20 patients suffering from primary glaucoma in both eyes
Summary
Glaucoma is the second common cause of irreversible blindness worldwide [1] It is essentially a collection of neurodegenerative diseases that affect both the retina and the central visual pathway, leading to degenerative changes in the lateral geniculate nucleus, geniculocalcarine (GCT)and visual cortex [2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13]. A number of mechanisms have been invoked to explain the mechanism of glaucoma, including reactive oxygen species, excitotoxicity, defective axon transport, trophic factor withdrawal and loss of electrical activity [12] These pathophysiologic actions lead to a serious of biochemical compounds changes in brain tissue. We investigated whether metabolites’ concentrations changed in the geniculocalcarine (GCT) and the striate area of occipital lobe by proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H-MRS), suggesting neurodegeneration of the central visual pathway in primary glaucoma
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