PURPOSE To analyze the histologic features of the insertion of the medial and the lateral rectus muscles in humans. METHODS Postmortem study performed on 49 extraocular muscles from 21 subjects without known ocular disease. All muscles were obtained no longer than 8 hours after death, after consent for autopsy. Thirty-seven lateral recti muscles and 12 medial recti muscles were studied with l...

In juvenile patients with Graves’ disease, extraocular muscles may be involved. Ultrasonography is a very important and informative diagnostic method in patients with exophthalmos and Graves’ disease. The aim of our study was to evaluate medial and inferior extraocular muscle thickness in juvenile patients with Graves’ disease. Materials and methods: Ultrasonography was performed on 78 orbits o...

Purpose To determine whether structural protein composition and expression of key regulatory genes are altered in strabismic human extraocular muscles. Methods Samples from strabismic horizontal extraocular muscles were obtained during strabismus surgery and compared with normal muscles from organ donors. We used proteomics, standard and customized PCR arrays, and microarrays to identify chan...

The vestibulo-ocular reflex is the system of compensatory ocular movements in response to stimulation of the kinetic labyrinth seen in all vertebrates. It allows maintenance of a stable gaze even when the head is moving. Perhaps the simplest influence on the VOR is the spatial orientation of the planes of the semicircular canals relative to the extraocular muscles. It is hypothesized that the e...

The distribution of acetylcholinesterase (ACHe) in the twitch fibers of the extraocular muscles of the mouse was examined by light and electron microscope autoradiography after labeling with radioactive diisopropyl fluorophosphate (DFP) with, and without, 2-pyridine aldoxime methiodide (2-PAM) reactivation. The values obtained were compared with those previously reported for the diaphragm and s...

The objective of this study was to investigate the characteristics and distributions of neuronal origin of cerebellar afferents from motor cranial nerve nuclei innervating extraocular muscles by the method of retrograde transport of two fluorescence tracers in rats. Under deep anesthesia and aseptic conditions, 5 microl of 3% solution of Fluoro-Gold (FG) in phosphate buffer solution (PBS) was i...

PURPOSE Infantile nystagmus syndrome (INS) is often associated with abnormalities of axonal outgrowth and connectivity. To determine if this manifests in extraocular muscle innervation, specimens from children with idiopathic INS or INS and albinism were examined and compared to normal age-matched control extraocular muscles. METHODS Extraocular muscles removed during normal surgery on childr...

Reports of orbital cysticercosis are uncommon despite the high incidence of brain and ocular involvement. Infestation of extraocular muscle is exceedingly rare. Two cases of cysticercosis of the extraocular muscles are reported here. Surgical removal of the encysted parasites successfully resolved the infestation in both cases.