Ocular Blood Flow Assessment in Glaucoma

Overview

Background : Glaucoma is a common disease, potentially blinding, characterized by progressive damage to the optic nerve. If the intraocular pressure is the most known risk factor, however, there are cases of glaucoma scalable despite well-controlled intraocular pressure, ocular hypertension without glaucoma or glaucoma without ocular hypertension (normal tension glaucoma). Purpose :Involvement of vascular factors in the development of glaucoma and scalability has been proved, associated with a possible loss of vascular autoregulation. The objective of this study is to quantify MRI flow of blood flows referred ophthalmic patients with glaucoma untreated comparison with control subjects.

Eye vascularization, supplied by ophthalmic artery and superior ophthalmic vein is not easily accessible to routine explorations to date. Similarly the potential oscillations of the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) around the optic nerve have not been described. Developments in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) provide new insights into the quantitative study of blood and CSF flows through phase contrast MRI also called "flow MRI". Our hypothesis is that the ability of MRI to measure intracranial flow is applicable to the vasculature of the eye. The MRI protocol will be applied to control adult subjects previously examined by an ophthalmologist. Structures to be imaged will be identified on a morphological sequence. Each MRI phase contrast slice (flow MRI) will be positioned perpendicularly to the flow direction. The flow MRI data will be analysed by a dedicated image processing tool which performs the vessels segmentation. For each curve of the vessel flow evolution during the cardiac cycle is reconstructed. Glaucomatous patients will undergo a six-month follow-up to determine if they respond to their therapy.

Conditions