title: Tract-based spatial statistics analysis of white matter changes in children with anisometropic amblyopia.
abstract: Amblyopia is a neurological disorder of vision that follows abnormal binocular interaction or visual deprivation during early life. Previous studies have reported multiple functional or structural cortical alterations. Although white matter was also studied, it still cannot be clarified clearly which fasciculus was affected by amblyopia. In the present study, tract-based spatial statistics analysis was applied to diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) to investigate potential diffusion changes of neural tracts in anisometropic amblyopia. Fractional anisotropy (FA) value was calculated and compared between 20 amblyopic children and 18 healthy age-matched controls. In contrast to the controls, significant decreases in FA values were found in right optic radiation (OR), left inferior longitudinal fasciculus/inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus (ILF/IFO) and right superior longitudinal fasciculus (SLF) in the amblyopia. Furthermore, FA values of these identified tracts showed positive correlation with visual acuity. It can be inferred that abnormal visual input not only hinders OR from well developed, but also impairs fasciculi associated with dorsal and ventral visual pathways, which may be responsible for the amblyopic deficiency in object discrimination and stereopsis. Increased FA was detected in right posterior part of corpus callosum (CC) with a medium effect size, which may be due to compensation effect. DTI with subsequent measurement of FA is a useful tool for investigating neuronal tract involvement in amblyopia.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital, National Clinical Research Center of Cancer, Key Laboratory of Cancer Prevention and Therapy, Tianjin, China.
authors.forename: Qian
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: School of Medical Imaging, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin, China.
authors.forename: Liying
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhai
authors.affiliation: School of Medical Imaging, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin, China; Institute of Neuroscience, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Qinying
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Tianjin Medical University General Hospital, Tianjin, China.
authors.forename: Wen
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Qin
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatric Strabismus and Amblyopia, Tianjin Aier Ophthalmology Hospital, Tianjin, China.
authors.forename: Qingji
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Tianjin Medical University General Hospital, Tianjin, China.
authors.forename: Xiaohui
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Yin
authors.affiliation: School of Medical Imaging, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin, China. Electronic address: guomx11@163.com.
authors.forename: Mingxia
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Guo
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000550:Amblyopia / Q000473:pathology*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D056324:Diffusion Tensor Imaging; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009412:Nerve Fibers / Q000473:pathology; D014792:Visual Acuity; D066127:White Matter / Q000473:pathology* / Q000503:physiopathology
keywords: Amblyopia; Fasciculus; Tract-based spatial statistics; Visual pathway