Eye movements in ephedrone-induced parkinsonism

PLoS One. 2014 Aug 12;9(8):e104784. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0104784. eCollection 2014.

Abstract

Patients with ephedrone parkinsonism (EP) show a complex, rapidly progressive, irreversible, and levodopa non-responsive parkinsonian and dystonic syndrome due to manganese intoxication. Eye movements may help to differentiate parkinsonian syndromes providing insights into which brain networks are affected in the underlying disease, but they have never been systematically studied in EP. Horizontal and vertical eye movements were recorded in 28 EP and compared to 21 Parkinson's disease (PD) patients, and 27 age- and gender-matched healthy subjects using standardized oculomotor tasks with infrared videooculography. EP patients showed slow and hypometric horizontal saccades, an increased occurrence of square wave jerks, long latencies of vertical antisaccades, a high error rate in the horizontal antisaccade task, and made more errors than controls when pro- and antisaccades were mixed. Based on oculomotor performance, a direct differentiation between EP and PD was possible only by the velocity of horizontal saccades. All remaining metrics were similar between both patient groups. EP patients present extensive oculomotor disturbances probably due to manganese-induced damage to the basal ganglia, reflecting their role in oculomotor system.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Basal Ganglia / physiopathology
  • Brain / physiopathology
  • Eye Movements / physiology*
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Manganese / toxicity
  • Middle Aged
  • Parkinsonian Disorders / chemically induced*
  • Parkinsonian Disorders / physiopathology
  • Propiophenones / adverse effects*
  • Saccades / physiology*
  • Substance-Related Disorders / physiopathology*

Substances

  • Propiophenones
  • monomethylpropion
  • Manganese

Grants and funding

This study was supported by the Czech Ministry of Health (IGA MZ ÄŒR NT/12288-5/2011 and IGA MZ ÄŒR NT12282-5/2011), Grant Agency of Charles University in Prague (GA UK 441611), the Embassy of the Czech Republic Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia, JSC Bank Republic Tbilisi Georgia. JRu is supported by the Czech Science Foundation (GACR 102/12/2230). TSi is supported by Czech Ministry of Education, MSM 6840770012 Trans-disciplinary Research in the Area of Biomedical Engineering II. JB is supported by the Swedish Research Council (621-2011-4423). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.