Disclosures: Purna Patel: No financial relationships or conflicts of interest

Objective: Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) can lead to persistent neurodegenerative symptoms. However, there is sparse research for objective, noninvasive, and accurate methods to assess and screen mTBI symptoms; instead current assessments have been limited to subjective interviews and questionnaires. The objective of our study is to examine saccadic eye movements using a video-based eye-tracker between subjects with a history of mTBI and those without.

Design: Cross-sectional research design

Setting: Voluntary participants were invited to an academic institute’s research lab for saccadic eye movement assessment.

Participants: A total of 38 subjects aged 18 through 41 were recruited, including 20 with a history of mTBI and 18 controls.

Interventions: Rivermead Post-Concussion Symptom Questionnaire (RPQ) and Neurobehavioral Symptom Inventory (NSI) were used to screen mTBI-related symptoms. Saccadic eye movement of both groups was assessed using the EyeLink Plus 1000 system, a video-based eye movement tracking system.

Main Outcome Measures: Latency, duration, amplitude, and accuracy of saccades.

Results: No significant differences in demographics, including age, were found between mTBI and control group, except marital status (0% vs. 27% married in mTBI vs. control, p < .001) and household income (90% vs. 52.9% with less than $50k, p < .05). But mTBI group showed significantly lower saccade latency (mean±SD, 155.97±22.57) and duration (57.29±14.71 ms), compared to controls (latency 272.37±53.08; duration 83.55±25.95 ms) (all p values < .01). mTBI had a higher saccade amplitude (5.80±0.85) than controls (4.35±0.81) (p < .001). No difference was found in accuracy. A bivariate correlation analysis showed a moderate correlation of mTBI injuries with latency (r = -0.695), duration (r = -0.494), and amplitude (r = 0.560) (all p values < .01).

Conclusions: Our analysis showed statistical differences in saccadic latency, duration, and amplitude between mTBI and control, which may be used as objective biomarkers to assess post-mTBI symptoms.

Level of Evidence: Level III

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PM&R Meeting Abstracts - https://pmrjabstracts.org/abstract/measurement-of-saccadic-eye-movements-after-mild-traumatic-brain-injury-mtbi/