Retinal function in patients with the neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis phenotype.

Purpose:: To analyze the clinical features, visual acuity, and full-field electroretinogram (ERG) findings of 15 patients with the neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis (NCL) phenotype and to establish the role of ERG testing in NCL diagnosis.

Methods:: The medical records of five patients with infantile NCL, five with Jansky-Bielschowsky disease, and five with juvenile NCL who underwent full-field ERG testing were retrospectively analyzed.

Results:: Progressive vision loss was the initial symptom in 66.

The prevalence of tic disorders in children and adolescents in Brazil.

Tourette syndrome (TS) and tic disorders represent events of familiar magnitude characterized by involuntary movements and/or vocalization. To determine the prevalence of TS/tic disorders we studied a sample of 762 subjects (388 M, 374 F), between 1992 and 1997, age 6 to 43 years old, taken out of a population of 10,155 subjects (4,918 M, 5,237 F; age: 3-56 years old). A structured 4-item questionnaire, direct interview (multistaged), >1 yr follow-up, were used.

Applications of visual evoked potentials and Fourier-domain optical coherence tomography in Parkinson's disease: a controlled study.

Purpose: The goal of this cross-sectional observational study was to quantify the pattern-shift visual evoked potentials (VEP) and the thickness as well as the volume of retinal layers using optical coherence tomography (OCT) across a cohort of Parkinson's disease (PD) patients and age-matched controls.

Methods: Forty-three PD patients and 38 controls were enrolled. All participants underwent a detailed neurological and ophthalmologic evaluation.

Urinary dysfunction with detrusor hyperactivity in women with Parkinson's disease cannot be blamed as a factor of worsening motor performance.

Introduction: Detrusor hyperactivity is the leading cause of urinary dysfunction in Parkinson's disease (PD). There are few studies correlating PD clinical aspects with this autonomic feature.

Methods: A cohort of 63 women with PD were prospectively examined for assessment of clinical aspects and disease severity using unified Parkinson's disease rating scale and Hoehn-Yahr scale, respectively.