Imaging Structural Changes of the Mouse Retina in Retinitis Pigmentosa with Balanced Steady State Free Precession

Eric R. Muir¹, Bryan H. De La Garza¹, Timothy Q. Duong¹

Retinitis pigmentosa (RP), which causes photoreceptor death and blindness, affects 1.5 million people worldwide. It is characterized by progressive loss of photoreceptors, followed by other neural and synaptic layers in the retina. In this study, high resolution MRI, acquired with balanced steady state free precession (bSSFP), was used to study anatomical thickness changes in a mouse model of RP at 42x42x400 micron. bSSFP provides fast imaging with good SNR and contrast in the retina. MRI detected longitudinal thinning of the retina at different stages of disease. MRI provided a non-invasive method to monitor anatomical changes in rodent retina in vivo.