Affiliations: [a] School of Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Kagoshima University, Kagoshima, Japan | [b] Department of Rehabilitation and Physical Medicine, Graduated School of Medical and Dental Sciences, Kagoshima University, Kagoshima, Japan
Correspondence:
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Address for correspondence: Sayoko Niwa, School of Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Kagoshima University 8-35-1, Sakuragaoka, Kagoshima 890-8544, Japan. Tel./Fax: +81 99 275 6751; E-mail: n-sayo@health.nop.kagoshima-u.ac.jp
Abstract: BACKGROUND:Stroke frequently induces visual problems, which impair activities of daily living, lead to falls, and require rehabilitation. However, visual dysfunction has not been well characterized in stroke. OBJECTIVE:The purpose of this study was to characterize visual function in patients with stroke and the association of these characteristics with neurological dysfunction and lesion hemisphere. METHODS:In 40 patients with stroke and 321 control subjects, we carried out an assessment of a broad panel of visual and neurological functional metrics to identify risk factors for specific visual impairments in stroke. RESULTS:Patients with stroke exhibited a significantly higher rate of occurrence for impairments in all visual metrics assessed, when compared to healthy controls. Risk for particular visual deficits varied according to lesion side (right versus left hemisphere) and specific types of neurological dysfunction. CONCLUSIONS:Detailed assessment of visual function in patients with stroke can help to clarify the risk of various types of visual impairment. Moreover, as visual function assessment in patients with stroke is difficult, knowledge of the correlation of visual impairments with different neurological dysfunctions observed in stroke and lesion side will help predict vision problems and inform optimal corrective measures in treating patients with stroke.
Keywords: Stroke, visual function, frontal-lobe dysfunction, trail making test part A
