Blink reflex in idiopathic intracranial hypertension patients

The goal of our study was to clarify the possible effect of increased intracranial pressure on electrophysiological blink reflex in idiopathic intracranial hypertension (IIH) pateints . Subjects & Methods: 40 females;20 IIH patients and 20 age matched controls , after through neurological examination , were subjected to electrically elicited blink reflex (BR) . Results: There was a significant delay in ipsilatral R2 (R2i) and contralateral R2 (R2c) latencies with 31.6 (±2.8) msec and 35.2 (±3.3) msec among cases when compared to controls with 29 (±2.6) msec and 32.2 (±2.8) msec respectively with (P-value<0.001), while R1 latencies were 10.4(±1) msec in cases and 10.5(±0.6) in controls with no signifcant difference between the two groups (p-value=0.726) Conclusion: the increased intracranial pressure was proved to increase R2i and R2c latencies of blink reflex studies which may suggest subclinical facial nerve dysfunction in IIH patients whether through peripheral nerve compression or at the level of the reflex centers (lateral medullla)in IIH patients.