“He had to remain unscathed but t’was hard!
The fear is there even though he denies!
His face was and frigid the lips were sealed!
But the fear was so lucidly seen in his eyes!”
Have you seen or heard about the rapid or fast movement of eyeballs when someone has giddiness? It is a sign which can never be forgotten when you see it! The first time any medical student or a medico sees this he or she is amazed at the intricate nature of the movement of the eyes!
He or she then realizes how brain through its series of connections and small muscles correct and control the movement of the eyeball! Every movement of the eyeball has at least two muscles involved where one is contracting while the other is relaxing! The balance is so delicate that any mismatch in the power or command to the eye muscles and the eyeball moves to one side faster and the brain tries to correct the movement instantly!
This sequence of mismatch and rapid correction produces the movement which in clinical terms is called the NYSTAGMUS!
Now, abnormal, spontaneous eye movements can be both congenital and acquired and this is a finding which has been recognized for ages!
Ocular oscillations termed ‘hippos’ by Hippocrates (460–370BC) and Galenos (129–216AD) are synonymous with nystagmus!
Other descriptions of abnormal involuntary eye movements with different beating directions, possibly associated with vertigo, seizures or ear symptoms and their impact on patients’ quality of life (e.g. oscillopsia, blurred vision) are preserved in many fragmentary ancient documents including papyrus scrolls and stone tablets from Egypt, Mesopotamia, India, China, Greece, Rome and the Middle East.
Even in India this is been observed in ancient medical texts! Like this description; “In a case of Sannipatika Timira, the outer world looks variegated and confused, appears as doubled or trebled to the vision (of the patient), and stars and planets, either defective or supplied with additional limbs, seem to float about in the vision”
Of course the proper word Nystagmus appears to have been coined in the 1880s by French ophthalmologist Émile Javal, who used a mirror on one side of a page to observe eye movement in silent reading, and found that it involves a succession of discontinuous individual movements!
After its description, Nystagmus is one of the most important diagnostic feature whenever anyone has giddiness of any cause to rule out whether the brain is good or not! Even the type of Nystagmus has such great diagnostic value! Remember how anyone watches a tennis match? Now imagine the head is fixed and only the eyes move! And then imagine the eyes to move faster! That is Nystagmus! Nystagmus often works in the background or is hidden in the signs and has to be bought out by examination! Being important and seen in the background reminds me of the birthday celebrity and character actor T. G. Ravindranathan! Incidentally he was my Father’s collegenate in GEC Trichur! Do not feel dizzy with that information!
Now close your eyelids and sleep!
Shubh Ratri!
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