Session Information
Date: Sunday, October 7, 2018
Session Title: Other
Session Time: 1:45pm-3:15pm
Location: Hall 3FG
Objective: To review prevalence of visual impairment and falls in patients with Parkinson’s disease.
Background: Falls are common and multifactorial in origin in patients with Parkinson’s disease. Risk factors include gait instability, freezing, dyskinesia, orthostatic hypotension, cognitive impairment as well as visual impairment from overlapping eye pathologies1. Our survey aimed to correlate visual impairment and falls in Parkinson’s disease.
Methods: Patients were identified from their clinic attendances on electronic patient record (EPR) between July and November 2017and letters were accessed from Cubescribe. Data was collected on an excel spreadsheet recording demographics, duration of PD, history of stroke, eye pathology (cataract, glaucoma, age-related macular degeneration (ARMD), visual hallucinations (VH)) and dementia.
Results: 61 patients with Parkinson’s disease (28 males and 33 females) average age of 82.2 years (range 69-91 years) were included in the survey. 27 out of 61 patients (44.26%) had eye problems whilst 59.3% of these patients (16/27) experienced falls. (Table 1) Visual hallucinations (7 out of 14) was the commonest eye pathology to be associated with falls. 18 fallers had no recorded eye pathologies but may have undiagnosed retinal involvement affecting the acuity of vision.
Conclusions: Visual deficits in patients with Parkinson’s contribute towards motor disorders including falls2. Retinal dopamine mechanisms can affect vision in PD and are useful to evaluate1. Whilst falls should be assessed adopting a multidisciplinary approach, assessment of visual impairment especially acuity should be recommended in such patients.
References: 1R.A. Armstrong, “Visual symptoms in Parkinson’s disease,” Parkinson’s Disease, vol.2011, pp. 1-7, 2011. 2Alenicova OA, Likhachev SA, Davidova OI (2017) Clinical Significance and Pathogenesis of Visual Impairment in Parkinson’s Disease. J Neurology & Stroke 7(7): 00266. DOI: 10.15406/jnsk.2017.07.00266.
To cite this abstract in AMA style:
N. Butt, M. Khwaja, A. Chatterjee. Visual impairment and falls in Parkinson’s disease (PD) [abstract]. Mov Disord. 2018; 33 (suppl 2). https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/visual-impairment-and-falls-in-parkinsons-disease-pd/. Accessed June 14, 2025.« Back to 2018 International Congress
MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/visual-impairment-and-falls-in-parkinsons-disease-pd/