3T DTI in Patients with Glaucoma. New Approaches for Data Analysis and Clinical Implications

Using DTI at 3T, the intracranial optic fibers can be assessed in vivo non-invasively by volumetric analysis and by calculation of diffusion coefficients within the optic nerve and the optic radiation.
Based on volumetric analysis, T. Engelhorn et al. (University Hospital Erlangen, Germany) could demonstrate that there is ongoing physiological atrophy of the optic radiation with increasing age and that there is significant pronounced atrophy of the optic radiation in glaucoma patients with good correlation to the extent of optic nerve atrophy whereas morphological MRI sequences do not show pathological findings.