This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Parkinson’s disease associated with visual defects
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Patients with Parkinson’s disease should receive visual field and ocular functional tests, a researcher speaking here advised.
Denise A. Valenti, OD, FAAO, told attendees at the International Society for Imaging in the Eye meeting that patients with Parkinson’s disease often have a reduction in contrast sensitivity function at low spatial frequencies and in vision in the blue portion of the spectrum, in addition to ocular motility abnormalities.
Parkinson’s disease is known to affect the neurons responsible for dopamine production; dopamine is necessary for smooth, purposeful muscle activity, Dr. Valenti said.
“If there are deficits in dopamine, the retina is affected,” she said.
She uses frequency doubling technology (FDT) perimetry to measure the visual field pathways in her patients.