Effects of retinal ganglion cell loss on magno-, parvo-, koniocellular pathways in the lateral geniculate nucleus and visual cortex in glaucoma

Assessment of Lateral Geniculate Nucleus Atrophy with 3T MR Imaging and Correlation with Clinical Stage of Glaucoma

“…The association between glaucoma and LGN atrophy, while previously demonstrated in animal studies, [10][11][12][13][14] has only recently been shown in humans. 7 The present study elaborates on this initial observation in a much larger patient cohort and correlates the degree of LGN atrophy to the clinical stage of glaucoma present.…”

Oxidative stress in glaucomatous neurodegeneration: Mechanisms and consequences

“…Evidence supporting a distal self-destruction program in glaucoma also includes the degeneration of RGC synapses in the brain. Studies using postmortem tissues from glaucomatous donors or studies using an experimental primate model of glaucoma have demonstrated that neurodegenerative changes are also observed in the lateral geniculate nucleus (the major relay center between the eye and the visual cortex), or even in the visual cortex in relation to the severity of optic nerve damage in ocular hypertensive eyes (Yucel et al, 2003). These further support that distal self-destruction of optic nerve axons in glaucoma may extend from the eye to vision centers in the brain.…”

Voxel-Based Morphometry and Diffusion Tensor Imaging of the Optic Pathway in Primary Open-Angle Glaucoma: A Preliminary Study

“…All patients fulfilled the diagnostic criteria for POAG of the American Academy of Ophthalmology, which are intraocular pressure Ն21 mm Hg, glaucomatous optic disc and visual field abnormalities, and a nonoccludable anterior chamber angle without characteristics of congenital or secondary glaucoma. 17 In patients, the disease duration from the diagnosis of glaucoma was [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20] …”

“…4 Experimental studies in animal models and postmortem studies of human glaucoma provide evidence of the fundamental process of neurodegeneration by demonstrating the death of retinal ganglion cells and the degeneration of the ON, LGN, and visual cortex. [5][6][7] The development of imaging modalities for the early detection of these changes in vivo could be very important for more accurate evaluation of the disease severity and assessment of the therapeutic efficacy of treatment strategies. Conventional MR imaging and magnetization-transfer imaging have been used in the evaluation of POAG and, with the use of region-of-interest methods, have demonstrated ON atrophy and a decrease of the magnetization-transfer ratio suggestive of degeneration in the chiasma and the visual cortex.…”