Título

STRUCTURE AND FUNCTIONAL ANALYSIS OF GLAUCOMA BRAIN DAMAGE

Objetivo

To evaluate the occipital cortex in glaucomatous patients using 3-Tesla high-speed magnetic resonance (MR) imaging and its association with structural and functional damage in patients with glaucoma and controls.

Método

This was a cross-sectional prospective study including healthy volunteers and glaucoma patients. All participants performed SITA-standard 24-2 automated perimetry (SAP), frequency doubling perimetry (FDT) (psychophysical tests), optic disc stereophotograph, spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (Cirrus HD-OCT), and MR.

Resultado

30 glaucoma patients and 18 healthy volunteers were included and 70.21% was female. Mean age was 61.8±10.0 and 55.7±7.7 years in glaucoma and healthy group, respectively (p>0.05). There was a significant difference between the surface area of occipital pole in left hemisphere in glaucoma group (mean: 1253.9±149.3 mm2) and in the control group (mean: 1341.9±129.8 mm2), p=0.043. There was also a significant difference between the surface area of occipital pole in right hemisphere in glaucoma group (mean: 1910.5±309.4 mm2) and in the control group (mean: 2089.1±164.2 mm2), p=0.029. There was also a significant difference between different glaucoma levels (mild, moderate and severe glaucoma according to SAP 24-2 MD level), in the surface area of the right and left occipital lobes (p=0.003 and p=0.032, respectively). Surface area of occipital pole in the left hemisphere was significantly associated with SAP 24-2 MD, visual acuity, age and RNFL (p=0.001, P<0.001,p=0.010, p=0.006, respectively). Addionally, surface area of occipital pole in the right hemisphere was significantly associated with SAP 24-2 MD, VFI from SAP 24-2, visual acuity, age and RNFL (p<0.001, p=0.007, P<0.001,p=0.046, p<0.001, respectively).

Conclusão

Bilateral occipital pole surface areas were independently associated with functional and structural ocular parameters from glaucoma patients.