Using fast eye movements to study fatigue in multiple sclerosis.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

To investigate whether internuclear ophthalmoparesis (INO) due to demyelination of the medial longitudinal fasciculus (MLF) provides a model for studying the poorly understood symptom of fatigue in multiple sclerosis (MS). We asked whether repetitive horizontal saccades increased eye movement disconjugacy in patients with MS with INO, but not in healthy subjects.

Methods

We compared conjugacy of horizontal saccades in 9 patients with INO (4 bilateral, total 13) and 8 controls during minute 1 and minute 10 of a fatigue test; we measured the ratio of abducting/adducting peak velocity (versional disconjugacy index [VDI]).

Results

VDI values were greater in patients than controls. During the fatigue test, controls showed no changes of VDI, but patients did (p <

SUBMITTER: Matta M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2739609 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature