gms | German Medical Science

The aim of the presented work is to introduce general quantitative indicators of pupillary reaction from short pulse illumination by simultaneous bilateral monitoring of the pupillary dynamic response (PDR) function. For extracting clinically relevant information a functional description of the averaged PDR was introducing. PDR was splitting into 3 segments and fitting by a linear function for the latency period, together with exponential functions for the constriction and the dilation periods. Each stimulus event consists of a short light pulse. The following parameters are extracted: time intervals for each segment; the pupil size differences for the pupil constriction and dilation as well as the exponential coefficients for respective segments, side difference for all parameters. Exemplary cases for healthy and glaucomatous eyes are examined. The parameters were relatively stable irrespective of the side (OD or OS) to which the pulse stimulus was applied. The side difference of the exponential coefficients between right and left eyes showed a clear distinction between the healthy and glaucomatous eyes both for constriction and dilation of the pupil diameter. The data analysis showed that the pupil size variation could be properly described by an exponential function and systematic time delay after a light pulse.