Spontaneous reversal of nystagmus in the dark

AIM To report five children with horizontal jerk nystagmus in whom eye movement recordings in the dark revealed a spontaneous reversal in the direction of the nystagmus beat. Three patients were blind in one eye and were diagnosed as having a manifest latent nystagmus (MLN), and two patients had str...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:British journal of ophthalmology 2001-04, Vol.85 (4), p.428-431
Main Authors: Shawkat, Fatima S, Harris, Christopher M, Taylor, David S I
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Anophthalmos - complications
Anophthalmos - physiopathology
Biological and medical sciences
Child
Child, Preschool
Children & youth
Darkness
Dominance, Cerebral - physiology
Electrooculography
eye dominance
Eye movements
Female
Humans
Light emitting diodes
Male
manifest latent nystagmus
Medical sciences
Nystagmus
Nystagmus, Pathologic - complications
Nystagmus, Pathologic - physiopathology
Oculomotor disorders
Ophthalmology
Original articles - Clinical science
Patients
Strabismus - complications
Strabismus - physiopathology
Velocity
Citations: Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:AIM To report five children with horizontal jerk nystagmus in whom eye movement recordings in the dark revealed a spontaneous reversal in the direction of the nystagmus beat. Three patients were blind in one eye and were diagnosed as having a manifest latent nystagmus (MLN), and two patients had strabismus and congenital nystagmus (CN). METHODS Eye movements were recorded using DC electro-oculography with simultaneous video recording, including infrared recording in total darkness. RESULTS Four patients had decelerating velocity slow phase jerk nystagmus when recorded under natural lighting conditions; the fifth case had accelerating velocity and linear slow phase jerk nystagmus. Under absolute darkness, nystagmus reversed in direction of beat with a mixture of linear and decelerating velocity slow phase waveforms. One child with unilateral anophthalmos could wilfully reverse the beat direction of his nystagmus by trying to look with his blind eye in the light and dark. CONCLUSIONS These observations support the theory that LN/MLN beat direction is determined by the “presumed” viewing eye and may be consciously controlled. The spontaneous reversal of beat direction in the dark suggests eye dominance is predetermined. Eye movement recordings identified mixed nystagmus waveforms indicating that CN (accelerating velocity slow phases) and LN/MLN (linear/decelerating velocity slow phases) coexist in these subjects.
ISSN:0007-1161
1468-2079
DOI:10.1136/bjo.85.4.428