Abstract
Abstract: :
Purpose:Asperger Syndrome is a neurobiological disorder in the autistic spectrum. Unlike autism, language development is normal. To date, ocular motility findings in this syndrome have not been described. We describe two patients with Asperger syndrome with horizontal nystagmus. Methods:Two patients with Asperger syndrome had clinical ocular motility assessment and eye movement recordings carried out using an infrared eye tracker (Eye Link Sensorimotoric Instruments, Germany). Both patients were male, aged eight and eleven and were diagnosed with Asperger syndrome at age three. Results:The first patient had congenital nystagmus with visual acuities of 20/80 (right eye) and 20/120 (left eye). He had a left face turn and small left hypertropia. Bilateral, conjugate, horizontal, jerk nystagmus with a latent component was present. An electroretinogram and visual evoked potentials were normal. Eye movement recordings showed a conjugate nystagmus with an amplitude ranging between four to six degrees, frequency of four to five Hz and waveforms of increasing and decreasing velocity, with a latent component. A Kestenbaum procedure was carried out for his abnormal head posture. The second patient had visual acuities of 20/60 in both eyes. He had a manifest, horizontal, jerk nystagmus increasing on laevoversion and adopted a left face turn. Electrodiagnostics were normal. Eye movement recordings demonstrated a conjugate, horizontal nystagmus with increasing and predominantly decreasing velocity waveform morphology, amplitude ranging between eight to fifteen degrees and frequency of three to four Hz. Conclusions:We describe two patients with Asperger syndrome and nystagmus with similar waveforms. To our knowledge the ocular motility disorder has not been described previously in this condition.
Keywords: neuro–ophthalmology: diagnosis • nystagmus • ocular motor control