BackgroundBlepharospasm is a focal dystonia that presents as involuntary, intermittent, continuous contractions of the eyelids. Abnormal eyelid contractions in blepharospasm are expected to cause balance problems, but there is no clear information.ObjectiveThis study was designed to evaluate the effect of blepharospasm on postural stability (PS) in patients with blepharospasm. As a secondary endpoint, the efficacy of botulinum toxin type-A (BoNT-A) treatment on static balance in patients with blepharospasm was investigated.MethodsTwenty-four patients with blepharospasm receiving regular BoNT-A injections and 20 age-matched and sex-matched healthy controls were included in the study. All subjects were evaluated on a static posturography force platform performing four tasks (eyes open (EO), eyes closed (EC), tandem Romberg (TR) and verbal cognitive task (COGT)). Evaluations of the patients were repeated 4 weeks after the injection.ResultsPretreatment lateral and anterior–posterior sways, sway area and velocities of the sways were significantly higher in patients than controls during the COGT and TR (p<0.05). In the patient group, with EO and EC, a few parameters improved after BoNT-A injection. On the other hand, in the TR and COGT, most of the sway parameters and velocities improved significantly after treatment (p<0.05).ConclusionsBlepharospasm may cause functional blindness in patients. This study demonstrated that PS worsens in patients with blepharospasm under dual-task conditions. BoNT-A injection treats the disease itself and, thus, markedly improves PS under dual-task conditions in blepharospasm.

Objective: Neurological diseases related to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) are known. In this study, it was aimed to find out whether the peripheral nervous system is affected in patients with a history of COVID-19 (post COVID-19) without neurological findings. Methods: Patients with a positive history of the nose swap polymerase chain reaction test and clinical signs of COVID-19 (post COVID-19 patients), and controls who have not had COVID-19 were included in this retrospective cohort study. Neurological examinations of post-COVID-19 patients and controls should have been normal. Nerve conduction studies including median, ulnar, posterior tibial and peroneal nerves were applied to all participants. Results: Thirty controls (14 males, 16 females) and 32 post COVID-19 patients (19 males, 13 females) were included. The mean ages of postCOVID-19 patients and controls were 49.7±10.9 and 38.0±7.6 years, respectively. Age and gender were not different between post COVID-19 patients and controls (p=0.122, p=0.316122). Nerve conduction study findings of median, ulnar, posterior tibial and sural nerves were not different between the two groups (p>0.05). Conclusion: This study may show that routine nerve conduction studies are not subclinically affected in post COVID-19 patients without neurological findings.

Purpose: The primary aim of this study is to evaluate postural stability by using a static posturography in patients with early Parkinson’s disease (PD). Secondly, this paper addresses the need for illustrating the effect of dual-tasking on postural stability in early PD patients. Materials and Methods: Twenty-nine early PD patients with maximum 5 years of disease duration were included in this study. The selected group had no clinical PI while their age- and sex-matched healthy controls were carried out. Neurological examination and mini-mental state examination (MMSE) were performed in all subjects. Unified Parkinson Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS) and modified Hoehn and Yahr (H&Y) scores were recorded in PD patients. Postural stability was assessed in all subjects on a static posturography platform under three different conditions: eyes open, eyes closed and a cognitive task of producing words with given letters. Results: The mean age of the PD was 59.2±10.5 whereas the control groups mean age was 56.3±7.6 (p>0.05). The female-male ratio was 9/20 in the PD and 12/17 in the control group. There was no important difference between the two groups in terms of demographic characteristics. In the PD group, the mean UPDRS was 12.8±4.9. The patients were mostly receiving polytherapy. Eye closure and cognitive task caused an increase in most sway parameters in both groups. Conclusion: Early PD patients on medication, postural stability is preserved and cognitive dual-tasking does not affect postural stability in these patients in the early stage.