Myogenic Palsies Flashcards
What is a myogenic palsy?
A myogenic palsy is a form of paralytic strabismus in which the weakness of ocular movement is due to a primary problem affecting the muscle itself rather than one disrupting the nerve supply or causing mechanical restriction. Primary disease.
What are some types of myogenic palsies?
- Chronic progressive external ophthalmoplegia (CPEO)
- CPEO+
- Myotonic Dystrophy (Ocular myositis/pseudo-tumour, tumours of muscle)
What is involved in Chronic Progressive External Ophthalmoplegia (CPEO)?
CPEO represents a number of conditions that have in common the presence of a progressive external ophthalmoplegia.
-Progressive bilateral ptosis usually preceding motility loss
- Progressive symmetrical loss of motility
Eyes become virtually immobile - Orbicularis weakness
- Bell’s phenomenon often affected (the tendency of the eyes to drift up when we close them
- Fibrotic changes may occur later after the eyes become virtually immobile. Identified in forced duction testing.
- Saccadic velocities are always reduced
- Smooth muscle is not affected and pupillary reactions and accommodation remain normal
Is CPEO normally bilateral or unilateral in ptosis?
Progressive bilateral ptosis
Is loss of motility in CPEO symmetrical or asymmetrical?
Symmetrical
What can forced duction testing identify in CPEO?
Fibrotic changes may occur later after the eyes become virtually immobile.
What velocities are always reduced in CPEO?
Saccadic velocities
What remains unaffected and normal in CPEO?
Smooth muscle is not affected and pupillary reactions and accommodation remain normal
What does CPEO stand for?
Chronic Progressive External Ophthalmoplegia
What is CPEO caused by?
Mitochondrial ocular disorder with deletion of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA).
Genetically it’s sporadic but autosomal dominant form does occur
What is the age of onset in CPEO?
Early 20’s but infancy to 70 years has been reported
What is CPEO and CPEO+?
CPEO = Isolation
CPEO+ = Association with multisystem deficits
What is CPEO+? What symptoms are included?
Ophthalmoplegia Plus
- retinal pigmentary changes (retinitis pigmentosa) – a.k.a. salt and pepper changes
- cardiac defects
- deafness (cochlear epithelium metabolically active tissue)
- cerebellar ataxia
- peripheral neuropathy
- impaired cognition
- endocrine dysfunction
- reduced grey matter and cerebellar volumes
What does it mean if someone has higher levels of deleted mtDNA in CPEO?
Wider range of tissues affected. Secondary to nuclear genetic defect affecting mtDNA (mitochondrial DNA)maintenance, replication or repair
What is CPEO+ also known as?
Kearns Sayre Syndrome
What is Kearns-Sayre Syndrome also known as?
CPEO
What age is Kearns-Sayre Syndrome usually diagnosed?
By age 20 (typically presents in childhood)
What ocular syndromes are present in Kearns-Sayre Syndrome?
- Ophthalmoplegia
- Bilateral ptosis
- Orbicularis weakness
- Bell’s phenomenon affected & difficulty closing lids
- Retinal pigmentary changes (salt and pepper retinopathy, RPE changes prominent in macula, periparillary retina and equatorial region)
What general syndromes (non-ocular) are present in Kearns-Sayre Syndrome?
- Heart block - cardiac conduction defects (heart rhythm disturbance where the hearts electrical impulses are conducted very slowly)
- Cerebellar ataxia
- High cerebrospinal fluid
What are the extraocular muscles affected in CPEO?
Deletion of different length of mtDNA → defective mitochondrial function
EOMs have higher mitochondrial volume than other skeletal muscles
Inherited from mother
What did Yu-Wai-Man et al (2013) find out about CPEO and EOMs?
MRI revealed EOM atrophy (myogenic palsy) in CPEO
A significant reduction in EOM volume in the CPEO group compared to normal for all 4 recti muscles. Approx 10 in each group
Reduction ranged between 24-40%
What is EOM atrophy like in CPEO?
The EOM atrophy is symmetrical as the right and left eye were well correlated (unlike for example in Graves Orbitopathy).
Yu-Wai-Man et al. (2013)
What symptoms do we find in neurogenic and myogenic conditions?
- Degeneration of brainstem
- Increased latency of blink response
- Restriction of voluntary eye movements with intact involuntary movements
- Abnormal MRI
- Muscle co-contraction
What did Yu-Wai-Man et al (2013) find out about CPEO and grey matter and cerebellar volumes?
Significant reduction in grey matter and cerebellar volumes for both types of CPEO patients
On subgroup analysis, the reduction in total grey matter and cerebellar volumes was apparent for patients with CPEO+, but not for those with pure CPEO phenotypes
What conditions do we need to differentially diagnose CPEO from?
- Congenital fibrosis of the extraocular muscles (CFEOM; children born with very restricted ocular motility and sometimes a ptosis)
- Myasthenia Gravis (MG)
- CNIII palsy or multiple CN palsies
- Supranuclear gaze palsy – these will show improvement in movement on doll’s head testing, whereas CPEO will remain unchanged.
- Graves Orbitopathy (GO) (and other mechanical disorders)
- Oculopharyngeal dystrophy
What is the aetiology of Oculopharyngeal Dystrophy?
Autosomal Dominant caused by short triplet repeat expansion (DNA mutation)
What are non-ocular characteristics of Oculopharyngeal Dystrophy?
- Onset - 5th decade of life
- Pharangeal weakness - difficulty swallowing
- Facial and limb weakness
- Pain in proximal muscles
What are the ocular characteristics of Oculopharyngeal Dystrophy?
Mimics CPEO
- Progressive bilateral ptosis
- OM, orbicularis and Bells Phenomenon usually intact - may develop limitation of elevation later (different to CPEO)
- Saccades - reduced (also in CPEO)
What investigations give us a differential diagnosis of CPEO?
- Onset
- Natural history
- Saccadic velocities ↓
- CT / MRI - atrophic muscles
- Muscle biopsy - (skeletal muscle/ eye muscle)
- Histology for ‘ragged red fibres’
- Genetic testing for mtDNA deletions
Is muscle biopsy conclusive evidence of CPEO?
Muscle biopsy provides important clues to the diagnosis of patients presenting with CPEO.
However, in about 40% of patients, histological studies may not be diagnostic of mitochondrial myopathy.
Histological studies should be combined with genetic studies for the definitive diagnosis of CPEO syndrome.