Saccade, Pupil, and Blink Responses in Rapid Eye Movement Sleep Behavior Disorder.

BACKGROUND: Parkinson's disease (PD) patients exhibit deficits in saccade performance, pupil function, and blink rate. Isolated REM (rapid eye movement) Sleep Behavior Disorder (RBD) is a harbinger to PD making them candidates to investigate for early oculomotor abnormalities as PD biomarkers. OBJECTIVES: We tested whether saccade, pupillary, and blink responses in RBD were similar to PD. METHODS: RBD (n = 22), PD (n = 22) patients, and healthy controls (CTRL) (n = 74) were studied with video-based eye-tracking. RESULTS: RBD patients did not have significantly different saccadic behavior compared to CTRL, but PD patients differed from CTRL and RBD. Both patient groups had significantly lower blink rates, dampened pupil constriction, and dilation responses compared to CTRL. CONCLUSION: RBD and PD patients had altered pupil and blink behavior compared to CTRL. Because RBD saccade parameters were comparable to CTRL, pupil and blink brain areas may be impacted before saccadic control areas, making them potential prodromal PD biomarkers. © 2021 The Authors. Movement Disorders published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society.

Malnutrition and dementia.

What was the nature of the CPD activity and/or practice-related feedback and/or event or experience in your practice? The CPD article outlined the effects dementia may have on a person's ability to eat and drink safely. It discussed assessment tools to identify patients at risk of malnutrition and management strategies to help maintain nutritional intake.