EYE-MOVEMENT QUANTITATIVE-EVALUATION BEFORE AND AFTER HIGH-DOSE 6-METHYLPREDNISOLONE IN MULTIPLE-SCLEROSIS

We studied saccadic and smooth pursuit eye movements in 24 patients su ffering from multiple sclerosis during disease worsening, before and a fter high-dose 6-methylprednisolone infusions. Quantitative evaluation of saccades was based on amplitude/duration and amplitude/peak veloci ty relationships, precision (i.e. the ratio of actual to desired sacca de amplitude) and the latency, whereas smooth pursuit eye movements we re studied using target velocity/performance index relationship. At ba sal recordings, 22/24 (91.7%) of the patients showed at lest one abnor mality. Eleven of the 24 patients (45.8%) showed modification of one o r several parameters: improvement in 6 patients, worsening in 2, coexi stence of both trends in 3. Latency improvement was the only significa nt modification when patients were considered as a group. Neurophysiol ogical modifications did not correspond to clinical changes.