Fixation Duration and Pupil Size as Diagnostic Tools in Parkinson’s Disease

BACKGROUND: Visual and oculomotor problems are very common in Parkinson’s disease (PD) and by using eye-tracking such problems could be characterized in more detail. However, eye-tracking is not part of the routine clinical investigation of parkinsonism. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate gaze stability and pupil size in stable light conditions, as well as eye movements during sustained fixation in a population of PD patients and healthy controls (HC). METHODS: In total, 50 PD patients (66% males) with unilateral to mild-to-moderate disease (Hoehn & Yahr 1–3, Schwab and England 70–90%) and 43 HC (37% males) were included in the study. Eye movements were recorded with Tobii Pro Spectrum, a screen-based eye tracker with a sampling rate of 1200 Hz. Logistic regression analysis was applied to investigate the strength of association of eye-movement measures with diagnosis. RESULTS: Median pupil size (OR 0.811; 95% CI 0.666–0.987; p = 0.037) and longest fixation period (OR 0.798; 95% CI 0.691-0.921; p = 0.002), were the eye-movement parameters that were independently associated with diagnosis, after adjustment for sex (OR 4.35; 95% CI 1.516–12.483; p = 0.006) and visuospatial/executive score in Montreal Cognitive Assessment (OR 0.422; 95% CI 0.233–0.764; p = 0.004). The area under the ROC curve was determined to 0.817; 95% (CI) 0.732–0.901. CONCLUSION: Eye-tracking based measurements of gaze fixation and pupil reaction may be useful biomarkers of PD diagnosis. However, larger studies of eye-tracking parameters integrated into the screening of patients with suspected PD are necessary, to further investigate and confirm their diagnostic value.