Upbeat nystagmus

What it means

In primary position, the eyes drift slowly downward and then spontaneously beat upward. Upward gaze accentuates the nystagmus. The associated oscillopsias are often very irritating, but the symptoms are usually transient.

In most cases, paramedian lesions in the medulla oblongata or the midbrain are found, for example, in patients with multiple sclerosis, brainstem ischemia or tumors, or Wernicke's encephalopathy.

Rare diseases that can present with this1

The range is how often this sign appears among people diagnosed with each disease — it is not a probability of having any of them. Many of these signs also occur in common, non-rare conditions. A sign on this page is a conversation to have with a clinician, not a conclusion.

Part of the broader category