New Techniques in Diagnosis of Eye Muscle Palsies: A Review

New techniques of diagnosis of eye muscle palsies are discussed. Electromyography facilitates differentiation between myopathies, myasthenias, neurogenic palsies and supranuclear motility disorders; this differentiation is based on the different aspects of electromyograms according to the different levels of affection. An important aid in diagnosis of eye muscle palsies, especially for the observation of the course of eye muscle palsies is oculography: here the determination of different parameters of eye movements under normal and pathological conditions is of utmost importance. These parameters are saccadic velocity on the one hand and acceleration on the other. Oculographic measurement of the saccadic movements gives a valuable indication of the severity of an eye muscle palsy and, when repeated, provides an important indication of the degree of recovery. A combination of electromyography and oculography permits the innervational pattern or eye muscles to be correlated with certain types of movements under normal and pathological conditions (Figure 9).