Abstract
The aim of this study was to determine the specificity and sensitivity of the Pelli-Robson and Ishihara diagnostic methods in differing Parkinson’s disease from essential tremor compared to DaTSCAN (dopamine transporter scan) findings. The intention was to investigate whether visual dysfunction appears in the early state of Parkinson’s disease. Therefore, we included patients with the symptomatology of parkinsonism lasting between 6 and 12 months. The study included 164 patients of which 59 (36.0 %) suffered from Parkinson’s disease, 51 (31.1 %) from essential tremor, and 54 (32.9 %) healthy patients which presented the control group. The specificity of Pelli-Robson test in confirming Parkinson’s disease was 53 % and the sensitivity 81.4 %. The specificity of Ishihara test in confirming Parkinson’s disease was 88.2 %, and sensitivity 55.9 %. We found that the colour and contrast dysfunction are present as the earliest symptoms of Parkinson’s disease. In this study the Pelli-Robson test is highly sensitive and the Ishihara tables are highly specific in the differential diagnosis between Parkinson’s disease and essential tremor, but neither of these methods fulfils the criteria for the validity of a test. We suggest performing both of these methods to evaluate which patients are indicated for DaTSCAN.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Gallagher DA, Lees AJ, Schrag A (2010) What are the most important nonmotor symptoms in patients with Parkinson’s disease and are we missing them? Mov Disord 25(15):2493–2500. doi:10.1002/mds.23394
Gaenslen A, Berg D (2010) Early diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease. Int Rev Neurobiol 90:81–92. doi:10.1016/S0074-7742(10)90006-8
Braak H, Rub U, Braak E (2000) Neuroanatomy of Parkinson disease. Changes in the neuronal cytoskeleton of a few disease-susceptible types of neurons lead to progressive destruction of circumscribed areas in the limbic and motor systems. Nervenarzt 71(6):459–469
Riederer P, Wuketich S (1976) Time course of nigrostriatal degeneration in Parkinson’s disease. A detailed study of influential factors in human brain amine analysis. J Neural Transm 38(3–4):277–301
Shahed J, Jankovic J (2007) Exploring the relationship between essential tremor and Parkinson’s disease. Parkinsonism Relat Disord 13(2):67–76. doi:10.1016/j.parkreldis.2006.05.033
Catafau AM, Tolosa E (2004) Impact of dopamine transporter SPECT using 123I-Ioflupane on diagnosis and management of patients with clinically uncertain Parkinsonian syndromes. Mov Disord 19(10):1175–1182. doi:10.1002/mds.20112
Antonini A, Moresco RM, Gobbo C, De Notaris R, Panzacchi A, Barone P, Calzetti S, Negrotti A, Pezzoli G, Fazio F (2001) The status of dopamine nerve terminals in Parkinson’s disease and essential tremor: a PET study with the tracer [11-C]FE-CIT. Neurol Sci 22(1):47–48
Asenbaum S, Pirker W, Angelberger P, Bencsits G, Pruckmayer M, Brucke T (1998) [123I]beta-CIT and SPECT in essential tremor and Parkinson’s disease. J Neural Transm 105(10–12):1213–1228
Tolosa E, Gaig C, Santamaria J, Compta Y (2009) Diagnosis and the premotor phase of Parkinson disease. Neurology 72(7 Suppl):S12–20. doi:10.1212/WNL.0b013e318198db11
Tabassi SA, Sepanlou SG, Lotfi J (2003) Acquired color vision deficiency in Parkinson’s disease. Acta Medica Iranica 41(3):142–146
Haug BA, Trenkwalder C, Arden GB, Oertel WH, Paulus W (1994) Visual thresholds to low-contrast pattern displacement, color contrast, and luminance contrast stimuli in Parkinson’s disease. Mov Disord 9(5):563–570. doi:10.1002/mds.870090510
Bodis-Wollner I, Tagliati M (1993) The visual system in Parkinson’s disease. Adv Neurol 60:390–394
Harnois C, Di Paolo T (1990) Decreased dopamine in the retinas of patients with Parkinson’s disease. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci 31(11):2473–2475
Haymes SA, Roberts KF, Cruess AF, Nicolela MT, LeBlanc RP, Ramsey MS, Chauhan BC, Artes PH (2006) The letter contrast sensitivity test: clinical evaluation of a new design. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci 47(6):2739–2745. doi:10.1167/iovs.05-1419
Mantyjarvi M, Laitinen T (2001) Normal values for the Pelli-Robson contrast sensitivity test. J Cataract Refract Surg 27(2):261–266 (pii: S0886-3350(00)00562-9)
Jones RD, Donaldson IM, Timmings PL (1992) Impairment of high-contrast visual acuity in Parkinson’s disease. Mov Disord 7(3):232–238. doi:10.1002/mds.870070308
Diederich NJ, Raman R, Leurgans S, Goetz CG (2002) Progressive worsening of spatial and chromatic processing deficits in Parkinson disease. Arch Neurol 59(8):1249–1252 (pii: noc20014)
Pache M, Smeets CH, Gasio PF, Savaskan E, Flammer J, Wirz-Justice A, Kaiser HJ (2003) Colour vision deficiencies in Alzheimer’s disease. Age Ageing 32(4):422–426
Tolosa E, Compta Y, Gaig C (2007) The premotor phase of Parkinson’s disease. Parkinsonism Relat Disord 13(Suppl):S2–7. doi:10.1016/j.parkreldis.2007.06.007
Bodis-Wollner I (2009) Retinopathy in Parkinson disease. J Neural Transm 116(11):1493–1501. doi:10.1007/s00702-009-0292-z
Oh YS, Kim JS, Chung SW, Song IU, Kim YD, Kim YI, Lee KS (2011) Color vision in Parkinson’s disease and essential tremor. Eur J Neurol 18(4):577–583. doi:10.1111/j.1468-1331.2010.03206.x
Pieri V, Diederich NJ, Raman R, Goetz CG (2000) Decreased color discrimination and contrast sensitivity in Parkinson’s disease. J Neurol Sci 172(1):7–11 (pii: S0022-510X(99)00204-X)
Louis ED (2005) Essential tremor. Lancet Neurol 4(2):100–110. doi:10.1016/S1474-4422(05)00991-9
Deuschl G, Elble RJ (2000) The pathophysiology of essential tremor. Neurology 54(11 Suppl 4):S14–20
Crawford P, Zimmerman EE (2011) Differentiation and diagnosis of tremor. Am Fam Physician 83(6):697–702 (pii: d8759)
Deuschl G, Bain P, Brin M (1998) Consensus statement of the Movement Disorder Society on Tremor. Ad Hoc Scientific Committee. Mov Disord 13(Suppl 3):2–23
Bain PG (2007) Parkinsonism & related disorders. Tremor. Parkinsonism Relat Disord 13(Suppl 3):S369–374. doi:10.1016/S1353-8020(08)70032-4
Bhidayasiri R (2006) How useful is (123I) beta-CIT SPECT in the diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease? Rev Neurol Dis 3(1):19–22
Hutton JT, Morris JL (2001) Vision in Parkinson’s disease. Adv Neurol 86:279–288
Biousse V, Skibell BC, Watts RL, Loupe DN, Drews-Botsch C, Newman NJ (2004) Ophthalmologic features of Parkinson’s disease. Neurology 62(2):177–180
Dowling JE (1990) Functional and pharmacological organization of the retina: dopamine, interplexiform cells, and neuromodulation. Res Publ Assoc Res Nerv Ment Dis 67:1–18
Vesela O, Ruzicka E, Jech R, Roth J, Stepankova K, Mecir P, Solano Z, Preclikova E (2001) Colour discrimination impairment is not a reliable early marker of Parkinson’s disease. J Neurol 248(11):975–978
Bodis-Wollner I, Marx MS, Mitra S, Bobak P, Mylin L, Yahr M (1987) Visual dysfunction in Parkinson’s disease. Loss in spatiotemporal contrast sensitivity. Brain 110(Pt 6):1675–1698
Pfeiffer RF (2007) Non-motor parkinsonism. Parkinsonism Relat Disord 13(Suppl 3):S211–220. doi:10.1016/S1353-8020(08)70004-X
McCleary R, Shankle WR, Mulnard RA, Dick MB (1996) Ishihara test performance and dementia. J Neurol Sci 142(1–2):93–98 (pii: 0022-510X(96)00141-4)
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Ethical standard statement
This study has been approved by Ethical committee of University Hospital Center in Osijek and has, therefore, been performed in accordance with the ethical standards laid down in the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments.
Informed consent statement
All patients gave their informed consent prior to their inclusion in the study.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Štenc Bradvica, I., Bradvica, M., Matić, S. et al. Visual dysfunction in patients with Parkinson’s disease and essential tremor. Neurol Sci 36, 257–262 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10072-014-1930-2
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10072-014-1930-2