Eye Movement Metrics in the Differentiation of Parkinsonian Syndromes.

Eye Movement Metrics in the Differentiation of Parkinsonian Syndromes Cecilia Bonnet, MD Summary of thesis submitted for the degree of Ph.D., Charles University, Prague 2017 In this thesis we investigated conjugate and dis-conjugate eye movements (EM) in Parkinson's disease (PD) and other parkinsonian syndromes aiming to characterize and differentiate some aspects of their oculomotricity using infrared video-oculography. First of all we published a practical review for medical students and clinicians describing clinical examination of eye movements, and interpretation of principal findings. Then we examined principal saccadic eye movements and smooth pursuit in the horizontal and vertical directions with video-oculography in a large group of healthy subjects, aiming to help new oculomotor laboratories in the constitution of their own norms. We conclude that age influence EM metrics but not gender or education level. The latency of saccades and the error rate of antisaccaes increases, while the velocity and gain diminishes with age. Saccades should be investigated in the horizontal and vertical plane because they are influenced by the direction of the target, resulting in a right/left and up/down asymmetry. In a third project we focused on a frequent complain of PD patients, namely blurred near vision and..