Visual Snow Treatment Report

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Visual snow patients show functional hyperconnectivity and structural abnormalities of brain regions involved in visual processing

Ghislaine L Traber; Njoud Aldusary; Patrick Freund; Fabienne C. Fierz; Konrad P Weber; Marco Piccirelli; Arvwa Baeshen; Jamaan Alghamdi; Bujar Saliju; Shila Pazahr; R Mazloum; Fahad Alshehri; Klara Landau; Spyros Kollias; Lars Michels

Author Affiliations and Notes

Ghislaine L Traber
Dept of Ophthalmology, University Hospital Basel, Basel, Switzerland
Institute of Molecular and Clinical Ophthalmology Basel (IOB), Basel, Switzerland

Njoud Aldusary
Dept of Neuroradiology, Clinical Neuroscience Center, University Hospital Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
Dept of Diagnostic Radiology, Faculty of Applied Medical Sciences, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

Patrick Freund
Spinal Cord Injury Center Balgrist, University of Zurich, Switzerland

Fabienne C. Fierz
Dept of Ophthalmology, University Hospital Zurich, Switzerland

Konrad P Weber
Dept of Ophthalmology, University Hospital Zurich, Switzerland

Marco Piccirelli
Dept of Neuroradiology, Clinical Neuroscience Center, University Hospital Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

Arvwa Baeshen
Dept of Diagnostic Radiology, Faculty of Applied Medical Sciences, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
Dept of Neuroradiology, Clinical Neuroscience Center, University Hospital Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

Jamaan Alghamdi
Dept of Diagnostic Radiology, Faculty of Applied Medical Sciences, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

Bujar Saliju
Dept of Ophthalmology, University Hospital Zurich, Switzerland

Shila Pazahr
Dept of Neuroradiology, Clinical Neuroscience Center, University Hospital Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

R Mazloum
Dept of Neuroradiology, Clinical Neuroscience Center, University Hospital Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

Fahad Alshehri
Qassim University, Buraidah, Saudi Arabia

Klara Landau
Dept of Ophthalmology, University Hospital Zurich, Switzerland

Spyros Kollias
Dept of Neuroradiology, Clinical Neuroscience Center, University Hospital Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

Lars Michels
Dept of Neuroradiology, Clinical Neuroscience Center, University Hospital Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

Footnotes

Commercial Relationships

Ghislaine Traber, None; Njoud Aldusary, None; Patrick Freund, None; Fabienne Fierz, None; Konrad Weber, None; Marco Piccirelli, None; Arvwa Baeshen, None; Jamaan Alghamdi, None; Bujar Saliju, None; Shila Pazahr, None; R Mazloum, None; Fahad Alshehri, None; Klara Landau, None; Spyros Kollias, None; Lars Michels, None

Support

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OPEN ACCESS
Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science June 2020, Vol.61, 3387.

Abstract

Purpose: Visual snow (VS) is a distressing, life-impacting condition with persistent visual phenomena. Visual snow patients show cerebral hypermetabolism within the visual cortex, resulting in altered neuronal excitability. We hypothesize to see disease-dependent change in functional connectivity and grey matter in regions associated with visual perception.

Methods: We studied 19 patients with VS and 16 age-matched healthy controls. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was applied to examine resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC). Volume changes were assessed by means of voxel-based morphometry. Finally, we assessed associations between MRI and clinical parameters.

Results: Patients with VS showed significant hyperconnectivity between visual and inferior temporal brain regions, and also between prefrontal, parietal, and cerebellar brain regions (corrected for age and migraine occurrence). In addition, patients showed increased grey matter volume in the lingual gyrus (all p<0.05 corrected). Symptom duration positively correlated to grey matter volume of the bilateral lingual gyrus (p<0.05 corrected).

Conclusions: Our data suggests that VS is associated with abnormal excitability of brain regions involved in visual processing. We conclude that both functional and structural plasticity contributes to evolving impairments in VS patients. These in-vivo neuroimaging biomarkers hold potential to predict individual outcomes and to track the effects of therapeutic intervention.

This is a 2020 ARVO Annual Meeting abstract.

Ghislaine L Traber, Njoud Aldusary, Patrick Freund, Fabienne C. Fierz, Konrad P Weber, Marco Piccirelli, Arvwa Baeshen, Jamaan Alghamdi, Bujar Saliju, Shila Pazahr, R Mazloum, Fahad Alshehri, Klara Landau, Spyros Kollias, Lars Michels; Visual snow patients show functional hyperconnectivity and structural abnormalities of brain regions involved in visual processing. Invest. Ophthalmol. Vis. Sci. 2020;61(7):3387.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

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