Objective: To investigate whether quantitative assessment of saccadic eye movements can distinguish between patients with progressive supranuclear palsy from patients with idiopathic Parkinson’s disease.

Background: Differentiation of idiopathic Parkinson’s disease (IPD) from atypical parkinsonism can occasionally be challenging. The presence of eye movement abnormalities are useful in the clinical diagnosis of progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP). In particular, the trajectory arc of patients with PSP can be curved, irregular and slow. The curved “round-the-houses” trajectory of vertical saccades was first described by Quinn in 1996 and remains a useful bedside clinical sign. We hypothesized that quantitative measures of these saccadic eye movements could be used to differentiate patients with IPD from those with PSP.

Method: A cohort patients with IPD and PSP performed standardized saccadic eye movements and oculographic data was recorded in addition to standard clinical data. Path length, velocity and acceleration in horizontal and vertical directions were calculated, along with saccade entropy.

Results: Oculographic data revealed differences in the vertical saccade path in patients with IPD and PSP. Quantitative analysis of these were used to distinguish between patients with IPD and PSP.

Conclusion: This preliminary study suggests that quantitative analysis of vertical saccadic eye movements in parkinsonian patients may be able to distinguish IPD from PSP.

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/quantitative-assessment-of-saccadic-eye-movements-in-progressive-supranuclear-palsy-and-idiopathic-parkinsons-disease/