Proton Relaxation Times of the Vitreous Body in Hereditary Vitreoretinal Dystrophy

• Published in: Ophthalmologica (Basel) Vol. 208; no. 4; pp. 195 - 197
• Main Authors: Ettl, A., Fischer-Klein, C., Chemelli, A., Daxer, A., Felber, S.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel, Switzerland Karger 1994
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Biological and medical sciences; Eye Diseases - diagnosis; Eye Diseases - genetics; Female; Humans; Magnetic Resonance Imaging - methods; Male; Medical sciences; Ophthalmology; Original Paper; Protons; Retinal Degeneration - diagnosis; Retinal Degeneration - genetics; Retinopathies; Vitreous Body - pathology; Vitreous body; Magnetic resonance imaging; Proton relaxation times; Hereditary vitreoretinal dystrophy; Stickler's disease; Human; Retinopathy; Diseases of the osteoarticular system; Wagner vitroretinal degeneration; Exploration; Nuclear magnetic resonance imaging; Stickler syndrome; Relaxation time; Genetic disease; Eye disease; Proton; Osteochondrodysplasia
• ISSN: 0030-3755; 1423-0267
• DOI: 10.1159/000310486

We performed proton magnetic resonance imaging of the vitreous body in a 37-year-old mother and her 14-year-old son who suffered from autosomal dominant vitreoretinal dystrophy. Both showed the characteristic signs of the disease including premature liquefaction of the vitreous. Magnetic resonance imaging at 1.5 T using a standard head coil yielded a shortened mean ( ± SD) transverse proton relaxation time (T 2 ) of the vitreous in our patients (T 2 = 311 ± 22 ms) in comparison with 8 eyes of normal volunteers (T 2 = 546 ± 157ms). The longitudinal proton relaxation time (T 1 ) showed a tendency towards lower values in the patients (T 1 = 2,928 ± 207 ms) but was not significantly decreased when compared with normal volunteers (T 1 = 3,257 ± 307 ms). The decrease in the T 2 times in our patients is in accordance with previous in vitro studies of artificial vitreous liquefaction in bovine eyes and provides information on the mechanism of vitreous liquefaction in vitreoretinal dystrophy.