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Patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and Parkinson's disease (PD) develop a progressive decline of visual function. This condition aggravates overall cognitive and motor abilities, is a risk factor for developing hallucinations, and can have a significant influence on general quality of life. Visual problems are common complaints of patients with PD and AD in the early stages of the disease, but they also occur during normal aging, making it difficult to differentiate between normal and pathological conditions. In this respect, their real incidence has remained largely underestimated, and no rehabilitative approaches have been standardized. With the aim to increase awareness for ocular and visual disorders, we collected the main neurophthalmologic and orthoptic parameters, including optical coherence tomography (OCT), in six patients with a diagnosis of PD, six patients with a diagnosis of early AD, and eight control subjects in an easily assessable outpatient setting. We also evaluated the patient's ability to recognize changes in facial expression. Our study demonstrates that visual problems, including blurred vision, diplopia, reading discomfort, photophobia, and glare, are commonly reported in patients with PD and AD. Moreover, abnormal eye alignment and vergence insufficiency were documented in all patients during examination. Despite the small size of the sample, we demonstrated greater ganglion cell and retinal nerve fibers layer (RNFL) damage and a defect of facial emotion recognition in AD/PD patients with respect to a comparable group of normal elderly persons, with peculiarities depending upon the disease. Ocular defects or visual discomfort could be correctly evaluated in these patients and possibly corrected by means of lens, orthoptic exercises, and visual rehabilitation. Such a practical approach may help to ameliorate motor autonomy, reading ability, and may also reduce the risk of falls, with a positive impact in daily living activities.

Objective: To assess CNS abnormalities in patients with Werner?s syndrome (WS) using MR metrics specific for tissue damage. Background: WS is a rare autosomal recessive disorder that causes premature aging. The CNS involvement in this disease is still debated. Methods: Two siblings who showed signs of neurological involvement underwent MR spectroscopic imaging (MRSI) and magnetization transfer (MT) imaging. Also, on conventional T 1-weighted MR images, measurements of total brain volume were performed. Results: Conventional MR images of both WS patients did not show abnormalities on visual inspection. However, both WS patients showed significantly lower values of normalized total brain volume and MT ratio in the white matter than agematched normal controls. Also, proton MRSI showed significantly lower values of central brain NAA/Cr in WS patients than in normal controls. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that, despite normal appearance on conventional MRI, diffuse structural and metabolic tissue damage can be demonstrated in WS brains by means of sensitive MR methods even in patients with moderate or subclinical CNS involvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]