Study on the Visual Condition in Parkinson's Disease

Neuromed IRCCS

Status

Unknown

Conditions

Parkinson Disease

Treatments

Diagnostic Test: Clinical evaluation of vision and eye tests

Study type

Observational

Funder types

Other

Identifiers

NCT03743467

NMOD_01

Details and patient eligibility

About

Non motor symptoms and signs in Parkinson's disease (PD) also include a series of visual deficits; deepening these aspects could be useful for a better management of symptoms, to standardize a specific protocol for the issues related to vision and also to understand how these aspects are important for the understanding of the mechanisms underlying the PD.

Full description

In Parkinson's disease (PD) several non-motor signs and symptoms already occur in the early stages of the disease; the symptoms are diverse and these also involve visual difficulties which commonly affect the majority of patients and which gradually worsen the quality of life.

The most common malfunction produced by PD is the dysfunction of dopaminergic pathways that may be responsible for a series of visual deficits too:

decreased visual acuity and decreased sensibility to light and color,
strabismus and forms of sensory and eye movement dysfunctions,
eyelid dysfunctions and dry eye syndrome

Moreover, in patients affected by PD, typical retinal features were discovered for the first time in 2004 by the use of OCT (Optical Coherence Tomography) such as:

the reduction of the retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL)
a typical thinning of the macular thickness, even if with different results. In the follow-up of the PD, these retinal features, verifiable by the use of OCT, could be considered as a marker of the pathology.

For these reasons it may be useful:

quantify in an objective manner how much the visual aspects affect the overall deterioration of the quality of life in patients with PD
demonstrate the validity of a specific and integrated outpatient diagnostic protocol for the study of visual and ophthalmological disorders in patients with PD
demonstrate the diagnostic role of early changes in macular thickness and of the optic disc in subjects suffering from PD using the OCT
establish orthoptic evidence in patients with PD

Enrollment

90 estimated patients

Sex

All

Ages

18+ years old

Volunteers

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

Patients aged ≥ 18 years
Patients affected by Parkinson's disease (PD) according to the diagnostic criteria of the United Kingdom Brain Bank, in the ON phase of their usual treatment
Hoehn-Yahr Stage from 1 to 3
Signature of the Informed Consent and of the privacy form

Exclusion criteria

Patients with symptoms and signs compatible with atypical parkinsonism
PD patients treated with antagonist drugs for central dopaminergic receptors (first and second generation antipsychotics) in the last 6 months before enrollment
Patients suffering from other neurological diseases
Patients with evident cognitive impairment (MMSE <24/30)
Patients with manifest eye movement disorders prior to the diagnosis of PD.
Patients with daltonism
Patients with amblyopia
Patients suffering from high anisometropia
Patients suffering from advanced cataracts
Patients suffering from glaucoma
Patients suffering from maculopathy
Patients suffering from pathologies of the optic nerve
Patients with severe visual field deficits
Patients with refractive defects above 5 diopters