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Study: Ocular motor system can overcome Graves’ restrictions
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Increased active eye muscle tension in different directions of gaze may represent an adaptation by the ocular motor system to overcome restrictions from thyroid-associated ophthalmopathy, or Graves’ disease, according to a study.
Suna Tian and colleagues at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden compared eight patients with thyroid-associated ophthalmopathy to eight age-matched healthy controls, recording both horizontal and vertical saccadic movements of both eyes.
Steady-state tension in the patients with Graves’ disease was increased in all directions of gaze both horizontally and vertically, most markedly for vertical fixations in the upper field of gaze. Vertical saccadic velocity was slower than normal in downward movements and horizontal saccadic velocity was reduced in the abduction field of gaze.
The study is published in the September issue of Graefe’s Archive for Clinical and Experimental Ophthalmology.