Disorders that affect control of eye muscles by the nervous system†

Certain strokes or transient ischemic attacks

Often in older adults and in people with risk factors for these disorders (such as high blood pressure, atherosclerosis, and diabetes)

Sometimes slurred speech, weakness, and/or difficulty walking

A doctor's examination

MRI or CT of the brain

A mass that presses on a nerve, such as a bulge in an artery (brain aneurysm) or a tumor

Often pain (sudden if caused by an aneurysm) and often other symptoms of nervous system dysfunction (such as muscle weakness, loss of coordination, and abnormal sensations in the skin)

MRI or CT of the brain

Inflammation or infection of the eye or surrounding structures (for example, abscess, sinusitis, and, rarely, with a blood clot in the cavernous sinus at the base of the skull)

Constant pain

Sometimes fever, chills, fatigue, loss of sensation in the face, and/or bulging eyes

CT or MRI of the orbits and sometimes the brain

Multiple sclerosis

Usually periods of relatively good health alternating with episodes of worsening symptoms

Weakness that comes and goes from day to day

Abnormal sensations such as tingling, numbness, pain, burning, and itching

Clumsiness

Loss of strength or dexterity in a leg or hand, which may become stiff

As the disorder progresses, shakiness, partial or complete paralysis, and involuntary muscle contractions (spasticity), sometimes causing painful cramps

Slowed, slurred speech

Problems with urination and/or bowel function

MRI of the brain and spinal cord

Myasthenia gravis

Double vision that comes and goes

Difficulty speaking or swallowing

Weakness

Muscles that weaken when they are used repeatedly

A doctor's examination

Antibody testing, electrical testing of muscles, or both

Wernicke syndrome

History of long-term alcohol use

Clumsiness, poor coordination, and confusion

A doctor's examination

Disorders that block eye motion

Graves disease (thickening of muscles and tissues around the eye—called infiltrative ophthalmopathy—that occurs most often in people who also have an overactive thyroid gland and rarely occurs in people with a normal thyroid gland)

Bulging of the eyes, often eye pain or irritation, watering, sensitivity to light, an enlarged thyroid gland (goiter), and thickened skin on the shins

Blood tests to evaluate thyroid function

Injury, such as a fracture of the eye socket (orbit) or a collection of blood (hematoma)

Pain

In people who have obviously had a recent eye injury

CT or MRI of the orbit

Tumors (near the base of the skull, the sinuses, or the eye socket, called orbital tumors)

Often pain unrelated to eye movement, bulging of one eye, and sometimes other symptoms of nervous system dysfunction

MRI or CT of the orbit and sometimes the brain