A retrospective study of 737 consecutive necropsies yielded 15 cases of drusen of the optic nerve head, an incidence of 20-4 cases per thousand. This represents the highest incidence yet reported. The histopathological features of drusen of the nerve head included elevation of the nerve head, compression of optic nerve fibres, partial optic atrophy, cytoid bodies, disc haemorrhages, juxtapapill...

Methods: Optical coherence tomographic images from 60 subjects (20 with ODE, 20 with ONHD, and 20 control subjects) were assessed qualitatively and quantitatively. Qualitative criteria for ODE included an elevated optic nerve head with smooth internal contour and subretinal hyporeflective space (SHYPS) with recumbent “lazy V” pattern. Optic nerve head drusen displayed a “lumpybumpy” internal op...

PURPOSE Decreased ATP correlates with intraocular pressure exposure in the optic nerves of mice with glaucoma. To understand what underlies this energy deficit, we examined mitochondria in the myelinated optic nerve axons of the DBA/2J mouse, a model of glaucoma secondary to iris pigment disease, and the DBA/2(wt-gpnmb) control strain. METHODS Mitochondrial length, width, surface area, and he...

PURPOSE To evaluate the possibilities of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for quantification of pharmacologically induced changes in optic nerve microcirculation. METHOD T2-weighted MRI sequences were used to image the eye, optic nerve, and frontal cortex in rats. Two sets of control images before and one set during Gd (DTPA) infusion were recorded. Blood flow values for two regions of the op...

Traumatic optic nerve avulsion is a rare event. A case of complete unilateral optic nerve avulsion after blunt ocular trauma without major damage to other ocular structures is reported. B-scan ultrasonography with 10 and 20 MHz probes proved to be helpful in diagnosing the optic nerve lesion, whereas orbital computed tomography was inconclusive. The prognosis is ominous and it is dependent on t...

During normal aging there is a reduction in white matter volume in the cerebral hemispheres and structural abnormalities in myelin in some parts of the central nervous system, but whether nerve fibers are lost with age and whether the myelin changes are ubiquitous is not known. Studying the optic nerve, which is a circumscribed bundle of nerve fibers, offers an opportunity to gain further insig...

MENINGIOMATA arising from the optic nerve sheath within the orbit are described by Walsh (1947) as being extremely rare, and more recently by Craig and Gogela (1949) of the Mayo Clinic as comparatively rare. These authors reported nine cases in which the tumour arose from the optic nerve within the orbit, three in which it arose from the nerve within the optic foramen, and five in which it appe...

PURPOSE To develop a method for generating high spatial resolution (10 µm) matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization (MALDI) images of lipids in rodent optic nerve tissue. METHODS Ice-embedded optic nerve tissue from rats and mice were cryosectioned across the coronal and sagittal axes of the nerve fiber. Sections were thaw mounted on gold-coated MALDI plates and were washed with ammonium a...