title: Optical coherence tomography study of experimental anterior ischemic optic neuropathy and histologic confirmation.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The optic nerve is part of the central nervous system, and interruption of this pathway due to ischemia typically results in optic atrophy and loss of retinal ganglion cells. In this study, we assessed in vivo retinal changes following murine anterior ischemic optic neuropathy (AION) by using spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) and compared these anatomic measurements to that of histology.
  
  
  METHODS
  We induced ischemia at the optic disc via laser-activated photochemical thrombosis, performed serial SD-OCT and manual segmentation of the retinal layers to measure the ganglion cell complex (GCC) and total retinal thickness, and correlated these measurements with that of histology.
  
  
  RESULTS
  There was impaired perfusion and leakage at the optic disc on fluorescein angiography immediately after AION and severe swelling and distortion of the peripapillary retina on day-1. We used SD-OCT to quantify the changes in retinal thickness following experimental AION, which revealed significant thickening of the GCC on day-1 after ischemia followed by gradual thinning that plateaued by week-3. Thickness of the peripapillary sensory retina was also increased on day-1 and thinned chronically. This pattern of acute retinal swelling and chronic thinning on SD-OCT correlated well with changes seen in histology and corresponded to loss of retinal ganglion layer cells after ischemia.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This was a serial SD-OCT quantification of acute and chronic changes following experimental AION, which revealed changes in the GCC similar to that of human AION, but over a time frame of weeks rather than months.
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California, USA.
authors.forename: Joyce K
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Ho
authors.forename: Madison P
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Stanford
authors.forename: Mohammad A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Shariati
authors.forename: Roopa
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Dalal
authors.forename: Yaping Joyce
authors.initials: YJ
authors.lastname: Liao
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D005451:Fluorescein Angiography; D005654:Fundus Oculi; D007834:Lasers / Q000009:adverse effects; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D009898:Optic Disk / Q000473:pathology*; D018917:Optic Neuropathy, Ischemic / Q000209:etiology / Q000473:pathology*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012165:Retinal Ganglion Cells / Q000473:pathology*; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D041623:Tomography, Optical Coherence / Q000379:methods*
keywords: AION; SD-OCT; animal model; optic neuropathy; retinal ganglion cell