Single Center to Evaluate and Compare Anisometropic Amblyopia in Adults Using Blood Oxygenation Level-Dependent Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Diffusion Kurtosis Imaging

BACKGROUND: Anisometropic amblyopia results from the unequal ability to focus between the right and left eyes. Blood oxygenation level-dependent functional magnetic resonance imaging (BOLD-fMRI) measures the proportion of oxygenated hemoglobin in specific areas. Diffusion kurtosis imaging (DKI) is a method of diffusion tensor imaging that estimates the skewed distribution of water diffusion probability. We aimed to evaluate and compare 11 adult patients with anisometropic amblyopia (AA) with 13 normally sighted healthy controls (HC) using BOLD-fMRI and DKI. MATERIAL/METHODS: Eleven adults with AA (age range 20–49; mean age 29.18±8.089) and 13 HC adults (age range 22–50; mean age 28.00±5.79) were recruited. DKI scanning used a single excitation echo-planar imaging sequence and a region of interest to obtain DKI parameters for optic radiation; the corpus callosum was manually placed, including mean kurtosis (MK), fractional anisotropic (FA), and mean diffusivity (MD) values; and BOLD data used a gradient-echo echo-planar imaging sequence. RESULTS: The AA group had lower MK and FA of bilateral optic radiation than the HC group (P=0.008 and P=0.006, respectively) and higher MD than the HC group (P=0.005). The MK of the corpus callosum in the AA group was lower than that of HC group (P=0.012).Compared with the non-dominant eyes of the HC group, the amblyopic eyes in the AA group had less activation range and intensity in Brodmann areas 17, 18, and 19. CONCLUSIONS: The combined use of DKI and BOLD-fMRI detected microstructural changes associated with local visual pathways and identified damage to the visual cortex in patients with amblyopia.