Tracing eyeball movements in Parkinson' s disease

Abstract

Objective To evaluate the eyeball movement examination on Parkinson' s disease (PD) and investigate their vestibular function.Methods Thirty healthy volunteers and 55 PD patients served as subjects.Thirty-one patients had bradykinesia, 23 patients had resting tremor at first visit and 1 had both.Electronystagmogram examinations were performed in all the subjects.The eyeball movment gain (G) of PD group was compared with controls and the difference between the bradykinesia group and resting tremor group was analyzed.Dissymmetry of the bilateral pursuit movement was investigated.Results The eyeball movement gains decreased in PD patients (Left G 0.79±0.10, Right G 0.78±0.11) significantly (U = 394.500, t = 3.547, P < 0.01) compared with controls (Left G 0.86±0.05, Right G 0.85±0.06).There was no difference (t = -0.100,2.005, P 0.05) between the bradykinesia group (Left G 0.79± 0.14,Right G 0.74±0.14) and the resting tremor group ( Left G 0.79±0.06,Right G 0.81±0.07).The dissymmetry of the bilateral movement increased significantly (U = 755.500, P < 0.05) in PD group (1.03±0.97) than in controls (0.87±0.86).Conclusion The velocity of the eyeball movement has decreased in patients with PD.There is no difference of the pursuit gain between bradykinesia group and the resting tremor group.The bilateral vestibular function is involved dissymmetrically. Key words: Eye movements; Parkinson disease; Electronystagmography