title: Vergence disorders in patients with spinocerebellar ataxia 3/Machado-Joseph disease: a synoptophore study.
abstract: Diplopia, a common symptom in spinocerebellar ataxia 3/Machado-Joseph disease (SCA3/MJD) cases, is not always due to asymmetric ophthalmoplegia. We found a Japanese SCA3/MJD family, in which three patients clearly had an impairment of divergence eye movement. We thus quantitatively examined the vergence ranges in eight Japanese SCA3/MJD cases using the synoptophore test. An impairment of the vergence eye movements was found in all patients, and the vergence impairment pattern, but not the ophthalmoplegia pattern, was found to be compatible with the diplopia pattern. The diplopia in SCA3/MJD cases is, therefore, attributed, at least in part, to the impairment of the vergence eye movements.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Neurological Institute, Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kyushu University, 3-1-1 Maidashi, Higashi-ku, Fukuoka, Japan.
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ohyagi
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Yamada
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Okayama
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Sakae
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Yamasaki
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ohshima
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Sakamoto
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Fujii
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kira
mesh_terms: D000010:Abducens Nerve / Q000503:physiopathology; D000328:Adult; D003290:Convergence, Ocular; D004172:Diplopia / Q000209:etiology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D004948:Esotropia / Q000209:etiology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D005260:Female; D005684:Gait; D006801:Humans; D017827:Machado-Joseph Disease / Q000150:complications* / Q000235:genetics; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009886:Ophthalmoplegia / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology; D010375:Pedigree; D013681:Tegmentum Mesencephali / Q000503:physiopathology; D018911:Trinucleotide Repeats