Autonomic dysfunction detection by an automatic pupillometer as a non-invasive test in patients recovered from COVID-19

Purpose To recognize dysfunctions in the autonomic nervous system (ANS) with changes in dynamic and static pupillary responses in patients who recovered from coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) Methods One month after recovery from COVID-19, patients were subjected to eye examinations. Pupillary responses were measured using a pupillometry system. Dynamic pupil parameters (i.e., pupil contraction amplitude, pupil dilatation latency, pupil contraction latency, pupil dilatation duration, pupil dilatation velocity, pupil contraction duration, pupil contraction velocity, resting pupil diameter [PD]) and static pupil parameters (i.e., mesopic PD, scotopic PD, high photopic PD, and low photopic PD) were registered. Results Although high photopic and scotopic PDs were significantly higher in patients recovering from COVID-19 than in healthy controls ( P = 0.04 and P = 0.002), no statistically significant difference was found in mesopic and low photopic PD ( P = 0.19 and P = 0.41). Regarding dynamic pupillometry parameters, resting PD and pupil contraction velocity ( P = 0.04 and P = 0.02, respectively) were significantly higher in patients recovering from COVID-19 than in healthy controls ( P