Morgan, M2, gave an oral presentation last Friday at the 48th Annual Medical Student Research Day. Her presentation, “The Utility of Magnetic Resonance Imaging in the Clinical Evaluation of Infantile Nystagmus”, shared the results of her summer research fellowship in the Drack Lab and won the William E. Scott Award for Ophthalmology Research.
In her presentation, Morgan presented data from 284 patient charts detailing the most common causes of infantile nystagmus as well as the tests performed during each patient’s work-up:
“The most common causes of infantile nystagmus in this pediatric ophthalmology cohort are retinal disorders, totaling 55% of all cases. Conversely, the most common first test in the nystagmus work-up was brain MRI, which cannot diagnose these disorders. MRI is not the best first test for patients with infantile nystagmus in the absence of other neurologic stigmata. ERG, OCT and molecular genetic testing in an order determined by clinical findings should be performed.”