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Biomedical subjects

R D Reinecke

Publications and source records attributed to R D Reinecke.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

Head nodding is compensatory in spasmus nutans.

BACKGROUND: Spasmus nutans is defined as asymmetric nystagmus with associated head nodding in childhood. It is not clear whether head nodding is a compensatory mechanism to control the nystagmus or an involuntary movement of pathologic origin. METHODS: The authors analyzed the relation between head and eye movements by simultaneous eye and head movement recordings of 35 patients with spasmus nutans. RESULTS: In 21 of these patients, the fine, fast, dissociated nystagmus changed during head nodding to larger and slower symmetric eye movements with both eyes oscillating at the same amplitude in phase and 180 degrees out of phase to the head movements, corresponding to a normal compensatory vestibulo-ocular reflex. CONCLUSION: These findings indicate that head nodding is compensatory in spasmus nutans.

Child, Preschool

Visual acuities and scotomas after one week levodopa administration in human amblyopia.

The authors previously showed that a single dose of levodopa improves the contrast sensitivity and decreases the size of fixation point scotomas in amblyopic patients. In the present study, they investigated the effect of levodopa after 1 wk of daily administration using a cross-over, double masked design. The decrease of fixation point scotomas was confirmed with automatic static perimetry. An improvement of visual acuity occurred in 70% of the patients after 1 wk of levodopa administration compared to only 22% in the authors' previous study using one single dose. The improvements in visual acuities and visual fields persisted even after the levodopa administration was completed.

Administration, Oral

Visual-evoked cortical potentials in dissociated vertical deviation.

It is debatable whether chiasmatic misrouting of temporal optic-nerve fibers (similar to that found in ocular albinism) is also characteristic of dissociated vertical deviation. Pattern appearance, pattern reversal, and diffuse-flash, monocular full-field visual-evoked cortical potentials were recorded from albino and normal human subjects and subjects with dissociated vertical deviation. Pattern appearance was the most reliable stimulus for evaluating lateralization (albino-type misrouting) in adult albino patients, and diffuse-flash stimulation was almost as reliable in children. Pattern reversal was found to be an unreliable indicator. Lateralization was not evident among patients with dissociated vertical deviation, as determined by the three modes of stimulation. Our data supported earlier findings that pattern appearance is the most appropriate technique to detect lateralization. Our findings differed from those of previous reports in demonstrating that reliability of the lateralization phenomenon increases with age up to approximately 15 years. Pattern reversal stimulation was not reliable in patients with horizontal nystagmus.

Adolescent

Surgical management of oculomotor nerve palsy.

We treated seven patients with unilateral oculomotor nerve palsy by transposition of the insertion of the superior oblique tendon to a point anterior and medial to the insertion of the superior rectus muscle without trochleotomy (Scott procedure). Additionally, large recessions of the lateral rectus muscle of involved eyes and, occasionally, recess/resect procedures of horizontal recti muscles of non-involved eyes were performed. All patients were followed up between one and eight years. Orthophoria in the primary position was achieved and maintained with one operation in four patients. A fifth patient had only a small residual exotropia. In two patients who had aberrant regeneration of the oculomotor nerve, surgery on horizontal recti muscles of the noninvolved eye improved the eyelid position of the involved eye after three operations.

Blepharoptosis

Treatment of manifest latent nystagmus.

Eight patients with manifest latent nystagmus, as noted by ocular movement recordings, were examined for nystagmus reduction after surgical or optical treatment. Seven of the patients had strabismus. Five patients underwent strabismus surgery, had no tropia postoperatively, and the manifest latent nystagmus converted to latent nystagmus. Four of these five patients subsequently showed improvement in binocular visual acuity. Three patients received optical treatment; one had accommodative esotropia and, with appropriate spectacle correction, the manifest latent nystagmus was converted to latent nystagmus with improved vision. In the other two patients the manifest latent nystagmus lessened after correction with appropriate spectacles; binocular visual acuity of one of these patients improved. The possibility of converting manifest latent nystagmus to latent nystagmus by strabismus surgery is a reasonable surgical goal. In patients with manifest latent nystagmus and strabismus, surgical or optical alignment of the eyes decreases the nystagmus intensity and may also improve binocular visual acuity.

Adolescent

Signs distinguishing spasmus nutans (with and without central nervous system lesions) from infantile nystagmus.

Clinical findings as well as eye and head movement recordings were analyzed from 23 patients with spasmus nutans without central nervous system (CNS) changes, 10 patients with spasmus nutans-like disease (head nodding, intermittent nystagmus associated with intracranial anomalies or visual pathway disorders), and 25 patients with infantile nystagmus. Ten diagnostic signs were established to differentiate between the patient groups. Although they were helpful in separating patients with infantile nystagmus from those with spasmus nutans, no difference was found between the patients with spasmus nutans with and without CNS lesions. This study indicates that eye and head movement recordings do not allow differentiation between benign spasmus nutans and spasmus nutans-like disease. The differentiation must be made on the basis of neuroimaging.

Child

Absence of visual sampling in infantile nystagmus.

The possibility that patients with infantile nystagmus achieve spatial constancy by sampling the visual scene only during certain range of velocities or certain phases of their nystagmus cycle was investigated by asking patients to detect a flashed test target that was presented repeatedly during all phases of the nystagmus cycle. After observing a 543 nm fixation spot projected on a diffusely illuminated tangent screen 1 m in front of the eye, patients were asked to detect a 2 msec test flash of the spot, now locked to the retina, that occurred 200 msec after the fixation spot was extinguished. The test target appeared randomly at 3,6,9, or 12 o'clock at, in separate trials, 0.8 deg or 10.0 deg from central vision. To avoid forcing patients from guessing a direction cued by the disappearance of the fixation spot, sometimes the flash did not occur at all. To avoid dark adaptation in our patients, the diffuse background illumination was adjusted to the brightest level allowing easy detection of the test flash. In every condition, all patients reported the fixation spot stationary. The probability of detection was the same across all velocity ranges. Remarkably, patients were just as likely to detect the test flash when the eye was nearly stationary even when it was moving more than 100 deg/sec. In one patient, the background illumination was raised so that he began missing the test flash more often. Here too, the probability of detection, now reduced to about 50%, was the same across velocity ranges.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Adolescent

Asymmetry in congenital ocular motor apraxia.

A 10-month-old girl presented with apparently unilateral ocular motor apraxia (OMA). Electro-oculography confirmed an inability to generate a saccade for fixation or in response to an optokinetic or vestibular evoked stimulus to the right. Fixation and optokinetic saccades and vestibular evoked nystagmus were present to the left. Magnetic resonance imaging revealed a small cerebellar vermis but no localizing unilateral abnormality or tumour. Subsequent review of video recordings of 16 children with congenital OMA revealed that 5 demonstrated asymmetry in the generation of fixation saccades. Two of the five also demonstrated asymmetry of vestibular evoked nystagmus, and an additional child had optokinetic asymmetry.

Apraxias

Bilateral total corneal and conjunctival choristomas associated with epidermal nevus.

A 4-year-old boy had been noted from birth to have bilateral masses obscuring the entire outer portion of the eyes. Systemic findings included mild growth retardation, multiple cortical lesions of the distal metaphyseal ends of the lower extremities, and diffuse skin pigmentation of the right side of the body. The epibulbar lesions were excised; on the right side, there was a thin cornea that necessitated corneal transplantation. The diagnosis of composite epibulbar choristomas associated with linear epidermal nevus was established by pathologic examination. This case report as well as a literature review establish the association of epibulbar choristomas with cutaneous linear nevi of the epidermal and sebaceous types.

Biopsy

Ophthalmologic safety of long-term hydroxychloroquine treatment.

Ocular toxicity of long-term hydroxychloroquine treatment was assessed by regular ophthalmologic examinations in 99 patients. No patient developed significant loss of vision or visual field constriction to a white test object. Three patients had evidence of toxicity, but the medication had to be permanently discontinued in only one who subsequently had regression of all abnormalities except visual field constriction to a red test object. Neither duration of treatment nor the diagnosis of systemic lupus erythematosus predisposed patients to toxicity.

Accommodation, Ocular