Pupillography as a sensitive, noninvasive biomarker in healthy volunteers: first-in-man study of BAY 63–9044, a new 5-HT1A-receptor agonist with dopamine agonistic properties

Quantitative Evaluation of Pupil Responses in Patients with Prolactinomas Being Treated with Dopamine Agonists

The aim of this study was to determine whether the dopamine agonist (DA) drug cabergoline used in the treatment of prolactinoma causes autonomic dysfunction by measuring static and dynamic pupillary responses. The study included 25 eyes from 25 patients who were receiving DA for the treatment of prolactinoma and 25 eyes from 25 healthy individuals. Static and dynamic pupillary responses were measured by automatic quantitative pupillometry. The scotopic pupillary diameter was found to be significantly higher in patients receiving DA medication compared with the control group, while pupil contraction time and pupillary dilatation latency were significantly lower. DA drug use changes static and dynamic pupillary responses, probably by increasing sympathetic tone. Pupillometry can be used as a non-invasive method to provide information about changes in the autonomic nervous system in patients receiving such drug therapy.

[Ophthalmic disorders as a manifestation of Parkinson's disease]

Parkinson's disease is a severe neurodegenerative disease accompanied with the degeneration of dopaminergic neurons in the central and peripheral nervous system. The diagnosis of Parkinson's disease can still be made only on the stage of irreversible and nearly total degeneration of the nigrostriatum dopaminergic system and exhaustion of brain compensatory mechanisms that explains the low efficacy of therapy. Ophthalmic pathology is one of the nonmotor symptoms of Parkinson's disease. This can be explained firstly by the fact that eye is a 'peripheral part of brain' and secondly by the involvement of dopaminergic neurons (dopamine-producing cells) that are subject to the selective degeneration during Parkinson's disease in the regulation of visual function in the eye and brain. Dopaminergic neurons and dopamine receptors are present in all structures of the eye. Parkinson's disease cause abnormalities not only in the retina but in the whole optic tract and can be considered as peripheral manifestations of the disease that precede the well-known motor dysfunctions. This review describes ophthalmological symptoms of Parkinson's disease, possible pathophysiological mechanisms of their development, optical disorders in experimental models of Parkinson's disease and also the perspectives of experimental and clinical studies of visual disorders for the development of preclinical diagnosis of Parkinson's disease.