title: Structural brain alterations in primary open angle glaucoma: a 3T MRI study.
abstract: Glaucoma is not only an eye disease but is also associated with degeneration of brain structures. We now investigated the pattern of visual and non-visual brain structural changes in 25 primary open angle glaucoma (POAG) patients and 25 age-gender-matched normal controls using T1-weighted imaging. MRI images were subjected to volume-based analysis (VBA) and surface-based analysis (SBA) in the whole brain as well as ROI-based analysis of the lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN), visual cortex (V1/2), amygdala and hippocampus. While VBA showed no significant differences in the gray matter volumes of patients, SBA revealed significantly reduced cortical thickness in the right frontal pole and ROI-based analysis volume shrinkage in LGN bilaterally, right V1 and left amygdala. Structural abnormalities were correlated with clinical parameters in a subset of the patients revealing that the left LGN volume was negatively correlated with bilateral cup-to-disk ratio (CDR), the right LGN volume was positively correlated with the mean deviation of the right visual hemifield, and the right V1 cortical thickness was negatively correlated with the right CDR in glaucoma. These results demonstrate that POAG affects both vision-related structures and non-visual cortical regions. Moreover, alterations of the brain visual structures reflect the clinical severity of glaucoma.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Management and Control for Complex Systems, Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Jieqiong
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Beijing Tongren Hospital, Capital Medical University, China.
authors.forename: Ting
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Psychology, Otto-von-Guericke University of Magdeburg, Medical Faculty, Institute of Medical Psychology, Magdeburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Bernhard A
authors.initials: BA
authors.lastname: Sabel
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Management and Control for Complex Systems, Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.|Research Center for Brain-inspired Intelligence, Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Zhiqiang
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Management and Control for Complex Systems, Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.|Research Center for Brain-inspired Intelligence, Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Hongwei
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wen
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Beijing Tongren Hospital, Capital Medical University, China.
authors.forename: Jianhong
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, Beijing Tongren Hospital, Capital Medical University, China.
authors.forename: Xiaobin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Xie
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, Beijing Tongren Hospital, Capital Medical University, China.
authors.forename: Diya
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, Beijing Tongren Hospital, Capital Medical University, China.
authors.forename: Weiwei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, Beijing Tongren Hospital, Capital Medical University, China.
authors.forename: Ningli
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Beijing Tongren Hospital, Capital Medical University, China.
authors.forename: Junfang
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Xian
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Management and Control for Complex Systems, Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.|Research Center for Brain-inspired Intelligence, Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Huiguang
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: He
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000679:Amygdala / Q000473:pathology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005260:Female; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000473:pathology*; D005829:Geniculate Bodies / Q000473:pathology*; D005902:Glaucoma, Open-Angle / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000473:pathology; D066128:Gray Matter; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000473:pathology*; D006801:Humans; D007429:Intraocular Pressure; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D014793:Visual Cortex / Q000473:pathology*