Pupillographic sleepiness testing in hypersomniacs and normals.
BACKGROUND
Pupillary oscillations in darkness are considered to be a sign of sleepiness. The purpose of this pilot study was to ascertain whether pupillary oscillations were more pronounced in patients with hypersomnia than in normals.


METHODS
Seven patients (four with sleep apnea syndrome, three with narcolepsy) and seven age-matched controls underwent pupillography for 11 min in complete darkness. The changes in pupil size were analyzed mathematically to determine quantitatively the amount of pupillary instability.


RESULTS
Hypersomniacs had much higher amounts of pupillary oscillations in darkness than normals. The differences were significant. Baseline pupil size did not differ significantly between the two groups.


CONCLUSIONS
This study showed that a pupillographic sleepiness test based on the evaluation of spontaneous pupillary changes in darkness is applicable in hypersomniacs and may facilitate therapy control, i.e. diagnostic grading by measuring daytime sleepiness objectively.
Wilhelm
H
H
Department of Pathophysiology of Vision and Neuro-ophthalmology, University Eye Clinic, Tübingen, Germany. helmut.wilhelm@uni-tuebingen.de
Lüdtke
H
H
Wilhelm
B
B
D000328:Adult; D006970:Disorders of Excessive Somnolence / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D009290:Narcolepsy / Q000503:physiopathology; D009991:Oscillometry; D010865:Pilot Projects; D011680:Pupil / Q000502:physiology*; D012016:Reference Values; D012891:Sleep Apnea Syndromes / Q000503:physiopathology; D012894:Sleep Stages / Q000502:physiology*