Characterizing Intraorbital Optic Nerve Changes on Diffusion Tensor Imaging in Thyroid Eye Disease Before Dysthyroid Optic Neuropathy

Objective The aim of this study was to determine whether the optic nerve is affected by thyroid eye disease (TED) before the development of dysthyroid optic neuropathy with diffusion-tensor imaging (DTI). Methods Twenty TED patients and 20 controls were included. The mean, axial, and radial diffusivities and fractional anisotropy (FA) value were measured at the optic nerves in DTI. Extraocular muscle diameters were measured on computed tomography. The diffusivities and FA of the optic nerves were compared between TED and controls and between active and inactive stages of TED. The correlations between these DTI parameters and the clinical features were determined. Results The mean, axial, and radial diffusivities were lower in TED compared with the controls (P
Source: Journal of Computer Assisted Tomography - Category: Radiology Tags: Neuroradiology Source Type: research