Investigation of oculomotor, balance and quality of life inidiopathic parkinson and progressive supranuclear palsy

Objective: The primary aim of our study is to investigate the differences in oculomotor, balance, walking abilities and quality of life in patients with idiopathic parkinson's disease (IPD) and progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP). Secondary aim is to determine the value of the vertical-horizontal saccade, pursuit eye movements and optokinetic nystagmus at usability of differential diagnosis of PSP and IPD. Methods: The study included 27 patients with IPD and 16 PSP and 22 controls with demographic characteristics. Eye movements have been evaluated with videonistagmography (VNG), balance-walking performance with Berg Balance Scale (BDI) and Dynamic Walking Index (DMI), quality of life with The 39-Item Parkinson's Disease Questionnaire (PDQ-39). Findings: It has been revealed that IPD and PSP group showed lower balance and walking performance than control group. The quality of life scores of PSP group were lower than IP group. In eye movement evaluation vertical and horizontal saccade, pursuit eye movements and optokinetic nystagmus values showed statistically significant difference. In Roc analysis, the cut-off points of the values of 290.0 ms and above for saccade latency up, 324.0 ms and above for saccade latency down in vertical saccade test and 241.75 ms for saccade latency to the left in horizontal saccade test were found to be statistically significant. Conclusion: It has been showed that in the IPD and PSP groups balance-walking performance deteriorated and abnormal eye movements were observed. The quality of life in PSP was more pronounced than IPD group. Moreover, oculomotor disorders negatively affect balancewalking functions in PSP and IPD and this may lead to impaired quality of life. Objective measurements of oculomotor findings in the differential diagnosis of PSP and IPD might contribute to better clinical evaluation. Key words: Idiopathic Parkinson, Progressive Supranuclear Palsy, Oculomotor, Balance, Quality of Life