• Fernanda Cristina Rueda Lopes, Soniza Vieira Alves-Leon, Jose Mauricio Godoy, Simone de Souza Batista Scherpenhuijzen, Leticia Fezer, and Emerson Leandro Gasparetto.
• Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Radiology, Rua Presidente João Pessoa, Niterói, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
• J Neuroimaging. 2015 Sep 1; 25 (5): 807-12.

Background And PurposeOptic neuritis (ON) is an acute episode of inflammation in the visual pathway (VP). It may occur as part of a demyelinating disease, which can affect white matter (WM) throughout the VP. Compensatory cortical adaptations may occur following WM damage to maintain visual integrity. Our aim was to investigate whether resting-state functional MRI (rsfMRI) can detect cortical adaptations following ON attacks and to correlate rsfMRI with diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) of WM within the VP.Materials And MethodsNeuromyelitis optica spectrum patients were compared to healthy controls at least 6 months after ON onset. DTI and rsfMRI were performed and post-processed using FSL tools (TBSS for DTI and MELODIC for fMRI).ResultsPtients had higher synchronization values than controls in the visual network (3.48 vs. 2.12, P < .05). A weak trend of correlation was revealed between fMRI and structural analysis by DTI using fractional anisotropy (right side: R = -.36, P < .08; left side: R = .075, P < .73).ConclusionsThe rsfMRI detected cortical reorganization following ON attack, but WM was considerably preserved in the posterior VP.Copyright © 2015 by the American Society of Neuroimaging.

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