Diffusion Tensor Imaging Analysis of the Visual Pathway with Application to Glaucoma Diffusion Tensor Imaging Analyse der

Glaucoma is an optic neuropathy affecting the entire visual system. The world-wide prevalence of glaucoma is estimated to be 60.5 million people. The visual disor-der caused by glaucoma can reach complete blindness if untreated. Various treatment approaches exist that can largely prevent the visual disability and limit the vision loss due to glaucoma if the disease is diagnosed in its early phases. Nevertheless, the slow progression of the disease along with the lack of clear symptoms results in the late identification of glaucoma. Moreover, the pathophysiology of glaucoma, and its biological foundation and factors are not yet fully determined or understood. Therefore, novel directions are essential for improving the diagnostic flow and the understanding of the glaucoma mechanism. Most of the glaucoma diagnostic methods analyze the eye with a main focus on the retina, despite the transsynaptic nature of the fiber degeneration caused by glaucoma. Thus, they ignore a significant part of the visual system represented by the visual pathway in the brain. The advances in neuroimaging, especially diffusion tenso