Pharmacological and Behavioral Strategies to Improve Vision in Acquired Pendular Nystagmus.

Kerkeni, Hassen; Brügger, Dominik; Mantokoudis, Georgios; Abegg, Mathias; Zee, David S (2022). Pharmacological and Behavioral Strategies to Improve Vision in Acquired Pendular Nystagmus. American journal of case reports, 23, e935148. International Scientific Information 10.12659/AJCR.935148

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BACKGROUND Acquired pendular nystagmus (APN) is a back and forth, oscillatory eye movement in which the 2 oppositely directed slow phases have similar waveforms. APN occurs commonly in multiple sclerosis and causes a disabling oscillopsia that impairs vision. Previous studies have proven that symptomatic therapy with gabapentin or memantine can reduce the nystagmus amplitude or frequency. However, the effect of these medications on visual acuity (VA) is less known and to our knowledge the impact of non-pharmacological strategies such as blinking on VA has not been reported. This is a single observational study without controls (Class IV) and is meant to suggest a future strategy for study of vision in patients with disabling nystagmus and impaired vision. CASE REPORT A 49-year-old woman with primary progressive multiple sclerosis with spastic paraparesis and a history of optic atrophy presented with asymmetrical binocular APN and bothersome oscillopsia. We found that in the eye with greater APN her visual acuity improved by 1 line (from 0.063 to 0.08 decimals) immediately after blinking. During treatment with memantine, her VA without blinking increased by 2 lines, from 0.063 to 0.12, but improved even more (from 0.12 to 0.16) after blinking. In the contralateral eye with a barely visible nystagmus, VA was reduced by 1 line briefly (~500 ms) after blinking. CONCLUSIONS In a patient with APN, blinking transiently improved vision. The combination of pharmacological treatment with memantine and the blinking strategy may induce better VA and less oscillopsia than either alone.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Further Contribution)

Division/Institute:

04 Faculty of Medicine > Department of Head Organs and Neurology (DKNS) > Clinic of Ophthalmology
04 Faculty of Medicine > Department of Head Organs and Neurology (DKNS) > Clinic of Ear, Nose and Throat Disorders (ENT)
04 Faculty of Medicine > Department of Head Organs and Neurology (DKNS) > Clinic of Neurology

UniBE Contributor:

Kerkeni, Hassen, Brügger, Dominik Marcel, Mantokoudis, Georgios, Abegg, Mathias

Subjects:

600 Technology > 610 Medicine & health

ISSN:

1941-5923

Publisher:

International Scientific Information

Language:

English

Submitter:

Pubmed Import

Date Deposited:

04 Jul 2022 07:50

Last Modified:

05 Dec 2022 16:21

Publisher DOI:

10.12659/AJCR.935148

PubMed ID:

35780294

BORIS DOI:

10.48350/171062

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/171062

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