Enhanced miotic response to topical dilute pilocarpine in patients with Alzheimer's disease
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Updated: Oct 30, 2026

Assessment of Memory Function in Pilocarpine-induced Epileptic Mice
Published on: June 4, 2020
H Kaneyuki1, S Mitsuno, T Nishida
1Department of Neuropsychiatry,Yamaguchi University School of Medicine, Ube, Japan.
Abstract:
To determine whether miotic response to dilute (0.0625%, two drops) topical pilocarpine could be useful in detecting Alzheimer's disease (AD), we assessed the response in 14 AD patients and 10 control subjects. The miotic response to pilocarpine was significantly greater in AD patients than in control subjects (p < 0.001). In contrast, mydriatic response to the anticholinergic tropicamide (0.01%, one drop) failed to show a difference between the groups (p = 0.54). There was no significant correlation between the miotic and mydriatic responses in individuals. We conclude that dilute pilocarpine could be useful as a diagnostic tool in early AD.
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