Visual loss without headache in children with pseudotumor cerebri and growth hormone treatment.

We report on two prepubescent girls with visual loss due to idiopathic intracranial hypertension (IIH), or pseudotumor cerebri, both treated with recombinant human growth hormone for growth failure. The interval from starting hormone therapy to diagnosis of IIH was 3 and 18 months, respectively. Both girls did not complain of headache and nausea.

The normal age-corrected and reaction time-corrected isopter derived by semi-automated kinetic perimetry.

Purpose: To determine the increase in isopter extent, resulting from the measurement of, and correction for, individual reaction time (RT; the latency between stimulus presentation and individual patient response), derived under the standardized conditions of semi-automated kinetic perimetry (SKP), and to model the age- and RT-corrected normative isopter values for SKP applicable to any Goldmann stimulus combination.

Design: Cross-sectional observational study.

Participants: Eighty-three healthy participants aged 10 to 80 years (11-12 participants per decade of age).

Visual short-term effects of Viagra: double-blind study in healthy young subjects.

Purpose: To investigate short-term visual effects of a single 100-mg dose of Viagra (sildenafil citrate) in healthy men.

Design: Randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial of drug effects on normal volunteers conducted by a single center.

Methods: Twenty men, aged 20 to 40 years, were treated with either a placebo or 100 mg sildenafil.

Parietal somatosensory association cortex mediates affective blindsight.

To investigate the neural substrates underlying emotional feelings in the absence of a conscious stimulus percept, we presented a visual stimulus in the blind field of partially cortically blind patients and measured cortical activity (by functional magnetic resonance imaging, fMRI) before and after the stimulus had been paired with an aversive event. After pairing, self-reported negative emotional valence and blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) responses in somatosensory association areas were enhanced, whereby somatosensory activity predicted highly corresponding reported feelings and startle reflex amplitudes across subjects. Our data provide direct evidence that cortical activity representing physical emotional states governs emotional feelings.

Detecting color vision in a malingerer.

A patient describing himself as totally color blind was ordered by the judicial system to have his color vision investigated in order to establish his suitability for military service. Basic clinical (Farnsworth Panel D-15, Moreland and Rayleigh anomaloscope equations), electroretinographic (ERG) and psychophysical techniques (spectral sensitivities) were applied to determine the extent of his color discrimination performance and cone function. These standard procedures were complemented by a test for cone interaction (transient tritanopia) and by newly developed cone-isolating flicker large-field ERG recordings.

Visual field constriction and electrophysiological changes associated with vigabatrin.

Purpose: We investigated functional, morphological and electrophysiological changes in patients under anti-epileptic therapy with vigabatrin (VGB), a GABA aminotransferase inhibitor.

Methods: 20 epileptic patients treated with vigabatrin (age range 25-66 years) were enrolled in this study. The referrals were made by the treating neurologist, based on suspected or known visual field changes in these patients.