Eye movements, abnormal

Episodic ataxia type 2 (EA2) is an autosomal dominant disorder with episodes of markedly impaired truncal ataxia lasting hours to days with interictal eye movement abnormalities. Exertion and stress commonly precipitate the episodes. Often, the episodes of ataxia respond to acetazolamide (Ophoff et al 1996). In some individuals, there may be a gradual baseline ataxia with evidence of cerebellar atrophy. Affected patients may also have migraine some even complain of basilar migraine (Ophoff et al 1996). 

Alcohol History of alcoholism, frequent falls, liver disease, abnormalities of eye movements, Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome... 

AD subjects have a higher prevalence of sleep disturbances than normal elderly, including sleep fragmentation, advancement of the sleep-wake cycle, and decreased amounts of slow wave and rapid-eye movement (REM) sleep (Prinz et al., 1982 Reynolds et al., 1988 Bliwise et al., 1989). Sleep-wake cycle disruption in AD has been associated with a greater burden of neuropsychiatric disturbances (Rebok et al., 1991 Ancoli-Israel et al., 1994), particularly apathy and delusions (Kaufer et al., 2001). Several studies have observed a relationship between the degree of intellectual impairment and REM sleep abnormalities (Prinz et al., 1982 Vitiello et al., 1984 Moe et al., 1995), underscoring the role of REM sleep in memory consolidation (Wilson McNaughton, 1994). 

Another measure of familial risk for schizophrenia is abnormalities of smooth pursuit eye movements, which are increased in unaffected relatives of adult probands (Holzman, 2000). To date, 56 relatives (age... 

Hiatt JE, Eloyd TC, Katz PH, et al Eurther evidence of abnormal non-rapid-eye-movement sleep in schizophrenia. Arch Gen Psychiatry 42 797-802, 1985 Hicks TP, Krupa M, Crepel F Selective effects of serotonin upon excitatory amino acid-induced depolarisations of Purkinje cells in cerebellar slices from young rats. Brain Res 492 371-376, 1989... 

Central and/or peripheral nervous system involvement is one of the most frequent features, often resulting in the neonatal period in drowsiness, poor sucking, severe hypotonia, abnormal movements, seizures, respiratory distress, and fatal keto-acidotic coma with lactic acidosis [3]. To these severe conditions echo late-onset diseases now frequently attributed to or associated with mitochondrial OXPHOS defects, such as Alzheimer s or Parkinsons disease [10]. Major neurological symptoms, in variable combinations, involve trunk hypotonia, cranial nerve and brainstem involvement (with abnormal eye movements, ophthalmoplegia, recurrent apneas), cerebellar ataxia, myoclonia, seizures, pyramidal syndrome, peripheral neuropathy, poliodystrophy, and leukodystrophy infections [27,28]. A diffuse impairment of the cerebral white matter (leukodystrophy) mostly results in motor disturbance with mental retardation and low incidence of seizures. 

Ross DE, Thaker GK, Holcomb HH, Cascella NG, Medoff DR, et al. 1994. Abnormal smooth pursuit eye movements in schizophrenic patients are associated with cerebral glucose metabolism in oculomotor regions. Psychiatry Res 58 53-67. 

Kernicterus (that may result from hyperbihrubinaemia) manifests as various neurological deficits, seizures, abnormal reflexes and eye movements. The blood-brain barrier of the neonate is not fully developed and unconjugated bilirubin can freely pass into the brain interstitium. Some medications, such as the antibiotic co-trimoxazole (a combination of trimethoprim and sulphamethoxazole) may induce this disorder in the infant, either when taken by the mother or if given directly to the infant, due to a displacement of bilirubin from binding sites on serum albumin, thus allowing unconjugated bihrubin to pass across the blood-brain barrier. 

Joubert, M., Eisenring, J.J., Robb, J.P and Andermann, F. (1969) Familial agenesis of the cerebellar vermis. A syndrome of episodic hyperpnea, abnormal eye movements, ataxia, and retardation. Neurology 19,... 

A spastic pyramidal tract syndrome of the legs has been reported. In young children the features of an extrapyr-amidal syndrome include abnormal eye movements, trismus, torticollis, and torsion dystonia. 

A 4-year-old child received injections of lidocaine plus adrenaline into the anterior tonsiUar pillars and nasopharynx during adenotonsillectomy. After the procedure, he became agitated and dysarthric, vomited, and had abnormal eye movements. He was unable to stand and walk, owing to ataxia. An MRI scan showed a cavity in the right paramedian meduUa. 

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