AccScience Publishing / AN / Online First / DOI: 10.36922/an.8244
CASE REPORT

Isolated oculomotor nerve palsy caused by midbrain infarct: A case report

Qiuhua He1 Fantao Song1 Yujie Wang1 Yao Wu1 Qiuchi Zhang1 Zhaoyao Chen1*
Show Less
1 Department of Neurology, Jiangsu Province Hospital of Chinese Medicine, Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China
Advanced Neurology, 8244 https://doi.org/10.36922/an.8244
Received: 26 December 2024 | Revised: 13 May 2025 | Accepted: 14 May 2025 | Published online: 20 June 2025
© 2025 by the Author(s). This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ )
Abstract

A 70-year-old man with hypertension and diabetes mellitus was admitted to the hospital two days after the onset of acute diplopia. His neurological examination revealed a disconjugate gaze at rest and limited inward gaze in the left eye, as well as an impaired convergence test. There was no ptosis of the upper eyelid, and the rest of the eye movements were normal. The pupils on both sides were equal in size and round, with normal light reflexes. The rest of the neurological examination was normal. High-resolution magnetic resonance imaging showed restricted diffusion in the periaqueductal gray matter of the lower midbrain. Acute stroke patients with visual symptoms may be misdiagnosed and do not receive the appropriate treatment. This is particularly important because potential acute stroke treatments such as intravenous thrombolysis or thrombectomy should be timely administered. We reported an isolated oculomotor nerve palsy caused by central cerebral infarction, which is seldom reported previously.

Keywords
Oculomotor nerve palsy
Brain stem stroke
Diplopia
Case report
Funding
This research was partially supported by the Jiangsu Provincial Healthcare Commission Medical Research Key Project (K2023009).
Conflict of interest
Zhaoyao Chen is a Youth Editorial Board Member of this journal, but was not in any way involved in the editorial and peer-review process conducted for this paper, directly or indirectly. Separately, other authors declared that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have influenced the work reported in this paper.
References
  1. Hoz SS, Ma L, Muthana A, et al. Cranial nerve palsies and intracranial aneurysms: A narrative review of patterns and outcomes. Surg Neurol Int. 2024;15:277. doi: 10.25259/SNI_531_2024

 

  1. Negi A, Vernon SA. An overview of the eye in diabetes. J R Soc Med. 2003;96(6):266-272. doi: 10.1177/014107680309600603

 

  1. Zhu M, Cui S, Peng J, Jiang H, Yan Y, Zhang X. Neurosyphilis patients presenting with ocular motor cranial nerve palsy in the modern antibiotic era: Case series from two centers and review of the literature. IBRO Neurosci Rep. 2024. doi: 10.1016/j.ibneur.2024.07.001

 

  1. Indraswari F, Mukharesh L, Burger KM, Leon Guerrero CR. Cases of stroke presenting with an isolated third nerve palsy. Stroke. 2021;52(2):e58-e60. doi: 10.1161/STROKEAHA.120.030568

 

  1. Kumral E, Bayulkem G, Akyol A, Yunten N, Sirin H, Sagduyu A. Mesencephalic and associated posterior circulation infarcts. Stroke. 2002;33(9):2224-2231. doi: 10.1161/01.str.0000027438.93029.87

 

  1. Heckmann JG, Schuttler M, Tomandl B. Achard-levi syndrome: Pupil-sparing oculomotor nerve palsy due to midbrain stroke. Cerebrovasc Dis. 2003;16(1):109-110. doi: 10.1159/000070129

 

  1. Seifert T, Enzinger C, Ropele S, Storch MK, Fazekas F. Midbrain ischemia presenting as vertical gaze palsy: Value of diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging. Cerebrovasc Dis. 2004;18(1):3-7. doi: 10.1159/000078601

 

  1. Nadeau SE, Trobe JD. Pupil sparing in oculomotor palsy: A brief review. Ann Neurol. 1983;13(2):143-148. doi: 10.1002/ana.410130206

 

  1. Chen Z, Li H, Wu M, et al. Caliber of intracranial arteries as a marker for cerebral small vessel disease. Front Neurol. 2020;11:558858. doi: 10.3389/fneur.2020.558858

 

  1. Hoi CP, Chen YT, Fuh JL, Yang CP, Wang SJ. Increased risk of stroke in patients with isolated third, fourth, or sixth cranial nerve palsies: A nationwide cohort study. Cerebrovasc Dis. 2016;41(5-6):273-282. doi: 10.1159/000444128

 

  1. Aroor S, Singh R, Goldstein LB. BE-FAST (balance, eyes, face, arm, speech, time): Reducing the proportion of strokes missed using the FAST mnemonic. Stroke. 2017;48(2):479-481. doi: 10.1161/STROKEAHA.116.015169

 

  1. Hagberg G, Ihle-Hansen H, Abzhandadze T, et al. The precision by the Face Arm Speech Time (FAST) algorithm in stroke capture, sex and age differences: A stroke registry study. BMJ Neurol Open. 2024;6(1):e574. doi: 10.1136/bmjno-2023-000574

 

  1. Yang Y, Lai C, Yan F, Wang J. Clinical significance of MRI contrast enhancement of the oculomotor nerve in ischemic isolated oculomotor nerve palsy. J Clin Neurol. 2020;16(4):653-658. doi: 10.3988/jcn.2020.16.4.653

 

  1. Senda J, Araki K, Tachi Y, et al. Acute unilateral isolated oculomotor nerve palsy in an adult patient with influenza A. Intern Med. 2019;58(3):433-436. doi: 10.2169/internalmedicine.0850-18

 

  1. National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. Evidence Reviews for Community Participation Interventions: Stroke Rehabilitation in Adults: Evidence Review H. London: National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE); 2023.

 

Share
Back to top
Advanced Neurology, Electronic ISSN: 2810-9619 Print ISSN: 3060-8589, Published by AccScience Publishing