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Vertical oculomotor apraxia and memory loss
Author(s) -
Mills Richard P.,
Swanson Phillip D.
Publication year - 1978
Publication title -
annals of neurology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 4.764
H-Index - 296
eISSN - 1531-8249
pISSN - 0364-5134
DOI - 10.1002/ana.410040209
Subject(s) - apraxia , electronystagmography , audiology , eye movement , psychology , medicine , appeasement , reflex , physical medicine and rehabilitation , neuroscience , nystagmus , aphasia , politics , political science , law
A case of vertical oculomotor apraxia with severe memory loss and hypokinetic inertia is described in a 34‐year‐old woman who was taking oral contraceptives. The eye movement disorder was limited to paralysis of voluntary vertical saccades; pursuit movements, reflex eye movement, and horizontal saccades were normal. Random involuntary vertical saccades documented by electronystagmography qualified this as a true apraxia. Similar cases from the literature have in common involvement of both medial thalami, a localization supported in this case by distinctive abnormalities on CAT scan. The clinical course suggested acute infarction, possibly due to embolism, in a territory supplied by the thalamosubthalamic paramedian arteries.