Glaucoma is a progressive optic neuropathy caused by a pathological loss of the retinal neurons that form the optic nerve from the eye to the brain. It is a leading cause of irreversible blindness in the United States;approximately 2.2 million people older than 40 years of age suffer from the disease and as many as 120,000 of these people are blind from glaucoma. As the population ages, the disease will become an increasingly important problem of public health, but treatment is effective in preventing or slowing vision loss and it is, therefore, important to optimize procedures for determining when treatment is needed and when it is effective. Because the cause of glaucoma is unknown, the diagnosis or progression of the disease requires ophthalmic testing to identify and quantify clinical characteristics of glaucomatous neuropathy, such as the pattern of visual field defects, anatomical changes of the optic nerve head, and thinning of the retinal nerve fiber layer. The goal of the proposed research is to gain a better understanding of the relationships between clinical measures of neural and visual losses from glaucoma. The principal experiments involve behavioral studies of visual function (standard automated perimetry) and high resolution imaging of retinal structure (optical coherence tomography) over the time course of experimental glaucoma in macaque monkeys. The data from the investigations of experimental glaucoma will be used to develop a quantitative model relating the loss of retinal neurons in a specific area of the retina to the number of axons entering the optic nerve from the same retinal area. In the final phase, the structure and function relationships that were derived from monkeys will be applied to assess the severity, or stage, of glaucoma in human patients. The research method is based on defining procedures with experimental glaucoma where there are excellent controls for the experimental and measurement variables and, then, application to human patients to test the clinical relevance and validity of the procedures. This method of going from the laboratory to the clinic should maximize the potential for significant new information about ophthalmic testing for diagnosis and assessment of glaucoma.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Eye Institute (NEI)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01EY001139-34
Application #
7866476
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZRG1-BDCN-H (93))
Program Officer
Agarwal, Neeraj
Project Start
1978-01-01
Project End
2012-06-30
Budget Start
2010-07-01
Budget End
2012-06-30
Support Year
34
Fiscal Year
2010
Total Cost
$357,865
Indirect Cost
Name
University of Houston
Department
Type
Schools of Optometry/Ophthalmol
DUNS #
036837920
City
Houston
State
TX
Country
United States
Zip Code
77204
Patel, Nimesh; McAllister, Faith; Pardon, Laura et al. (2018) The effects of graded intraocular pressure challenge on the optic nerve head. Exp Eye Res 169:79-90
McAllister, Faith; Harwerth, Ronald; Patel, Nimesh (2018) Assessing the True Intraocular Pressure in the Non-human Primate. Optom Vis Sci 95:113-119
Patel, Nimesh B; Hung, Li-Fang; Harwerth, Ronald S (2017) Postnatal maturation of the fovea in Macaca mulatta using optical coherence tomography. Exp Eye Res 164:8-21
Ivers, Kevin M; Sredar, Nripun; Patel, Nimesh B et al. (2015) In Vivo Changes in Lamina Cribrosa Microarchitecture and Optic Nerve Head Structure in Early Experimental Glaucoma. PLoS One 10:e0134223
Patel, Nimesh B; Sullivan-Mee, Michael; Harwerth, Ronald S (2014) The relationship between retinal nerve fiber layer thickness and optic nerve head neuroretinal rim tissue in glaucoma. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci 55:6802-16
Patel, Nimesh B; Lim, Mimi; Gajjar, Avni et al. (2014) Age-associated changes in the retinal nerve fiber layer and optic nerve head. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci 55:5134-43
Luo, Xunda; Patel, Nimesh B; Rajagopalan, Lakshmi P et al. (2014) Relation between macular retinal ganglion cell/inner plexiform layer thickness and multifocal electroretinogram measures in experimental glaucoma. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci 55:4512-24
Hanlon, Samuel D; Smith, C Wayne; Sauter, Marika N et al. (2014) Integrin-dependent neutrophil migration in the injured mouse cornea. Exp Eye Res 120:61-70
Patel, Nimesh B; Garcia, Brenda; Harwerth, Ronald S (2012) Influence of anterior segment power on the scan path and RNFL thickness using SD-OCT. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci 53:5788-98
Wheat, Joe L; Rangaswamy, Nalini V; Harwerth, Ronald S (2012) Correlating RNFL thickness by OCT with perimetric sensitivity in glaucoma patients. J Glaucoma 21:95-101

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