Parkinson's Disease Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Parkinson's Disease, including details on symptoms, treatment, genetics, medication.

A case report on fixation instability in Parkinson's disease with bilateral deep brain stimulation implants.

Wark HA, Garell PC, Walker AL, Basso MA

Department of Physiology, University of Wisconsin, Madison Medical School, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, USA.

We report on fixation instabilities in a patient diagnosed with Parkinson's disease (PD). This patient underwent deep brain stimulation (DBS) surgery bilaterally in the vicinity of the subthalamic nuclei (STN). Examination of the eye movements of this patient revealed marked fixation instability compared with a healthy age matched control. The eye movements occurring during fixation differed from other reports of fixation instabilities in that they interrupted fixation for only brief durations. These interruptive saccades (IS) had saccade-like amplitude velocity relationships. The frequency of these IS was higher in the patient with PD than in the healthy age matched control. Furthermore, the frequency of the IS in the patient reduced toward control with application of bilateral DBS in the vicinity of the STN. From our observations we conclude that fixation ability may be altered in PD and improved with DBS.

Published 17 March 2008 in J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry, 79(4): 443-7.
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