Saccadic analysis for early identification of neurological involvement in Gaucher disease.

The early identification of a neurological involvement in Gaucher's Disease (GD) is essential for a correct dosage of the enzymatic therapy. The saccadic eye movement characteristics of 15 patients affected by the non-neurological GD form show normal peak velocity values and some slight alterations of the velocity profiles present in more than 70% of the recorded eye movements in four cases; two of them later developed epilepsy. This fact supports the hypothesis that the presence of alterations in the velocity profile of the most part of saccadic movements is an index of initial neurological involvement. Further evaluations are necessary in order to understand if an increase of therapy dose should be used in all the subjects presenting such saccadic alterations.