Research Progress in MRI of the Visual Pathway in Diabetic Retinopathy

With an increasing incidence, diabetic retinopathy is one of the most important complications of diabetes mellitus (DM) and is also known as one of the major reasons of adult acquired blindness. It is widely accepted that the visual impairment of diabetic patients results from retinal microvascular changes. However, recent clinical experimental and neuroimaging studies suggest that the visual impairment of diabetic patients is also related to the pathophysiological changes of different parts of the visual pathway in diabetic retinopathy. Therefore, the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques have been widely used for evaluating the microstructural changes, white matter integrity, metabolite changes, and the whole or partial functional and anatomic changes in the diabetic retinopathy patients' brains in order to fully understand the mechanism of vision loss of the diabetic retinopathy patients. This review focuses on the research progress in application of MRI of the visual pathway in diabetic retinopathy.