Optic nerve diseases, such as traumatic, ischemic, and glaucomatous neuropathies, are a major cause of irreversible blindness. These conditions involve optic nerve axon degeneration, but current diagnostic tools like OCT lack specificity to differentiate between axonal and myelin pathology, hindering targeted therapy and accurate prognosis. Conventional MRI is insensitive to these microstructural changes.
This project will leverage Diffusion Kurtosis Imaging (DKI), an advanced MRI technique sensitive to the microstructural complexity of neural tissue. Our scientific rationale is that DKI can provide a more biologically specific picture of optic nerve integrity than current methods.
Research Questions:
Can DKI-derived metrics serve as robust biomarkers to differentiate between healthy and diseased optic nerves?
Can specific DKI parameters distinguish between primary axonal damage and demyelination in optic nerve pathologies?
Can DKI quantify the severity of optic nerve injury and track its progression or response to treatment?
Objectives:
To establish a normative atlas of DKI metrics for the healthy optic nerve using the UK Biobank imaging dataset.
To develop and validate a robust analysis pipeline for quantifying microstructural parameters (e.g., Kurtosis Anisotropy, Radial Kurtosis) along the entire optic nerve.
To create a quantitative framework that links specific DKI signatures to different types of optic nerve pathophysiology (axonal vs. myelin damage), providing a foundation for improved diagnosis and monitoring of optic nerve diseases.
