Aberrant white matter function and structure in Rhegmatogenous retinal detachment: A study utilizing functional...

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Ophthalmology
• Medical Imaging

Background:

• Rhegmatogenous retinal detachment (RRD) is associated with visual pathway and gray matter changes.
• White matter (WM) functional and structural alterations in RRD are not well understood.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate white matter (WM) functional and structural integrity in RRD patients.
• To identify potential neurobiological markers for RRD classification.

Main Methods:

• Functional clustering networks and TractSeg for WM analysis.
• Support Vector Machine (SVM) algorithms for patient classification.
• Analysis of functional covariance connectivity (FCC) and WM amplitude.

Main Results:

• RRD patients showed reduced FCC between Superior Temporal and Cerebellar Networks.
• Increased WM amplitude observed in the Anterior Corpus Callosum Network.
• Visual acuity negatively correlated with WM amplitudes in Occipital Networks.
• SVM model using WM7_amplitude achieved high classification accuracy (AUC).

Conclusions:

• WM functional and structural integrity are critically disrupted in RRD.
• These disruptions are linked to cognitive and visual deficits.
• WM amplitude analysis offers a promising biomarker for distinguishing RRD patients from healthy controls.