Proton relaxation times of the vitreous body in hereditary vitreoretinal dystrophy.

We performed proton magnetic resonance imaging of the vitreous body in a 37-year-old mother and her 14-year-old son who suffered from autosomal dominant vitreoretinal dystrophy. Both showed the characteristic signs of the disease including premature liquefaction of the vitreous. Magnetic resonance imaging at 1.5 T using a standard head coil yielded a shortened mean (+/- SD) transverse proton relaxation time (T2) of the vitreous in our patients (T2 = 311 +/- 22 ms) in comparison with 8 eyes of normal volunteers (T2 = 546 +/- 157 ms). The longitudinal proton relaxation time (T1) showed a tendency towards lower values in the patients (T1 = 2,928 +/- 207 ms) but was not significantly decreased when compared with normal volunteers (T1 = 3,257 +/- 307 ms). The decrease in the T2 times in our patients is in accordance with previous in vitro studies of artificial vitreous liquefaction in bovine eyes and provides information on the mechanism of vitreous liquefaction in vitreoretinal dystrophy.