2023-2024 Basic and Clinical Science Course (TM), Section 5

Section 5 of the Academy's Basic and Clinical Science Course (TM) (BCSC (R)) provides a symptom-driven approach to the diagnosis and treatment of major neuro-ophthalmic conditions. Accordingly, the emphasis is on the examination of the patient, both basic and extended, and the appropriate use of adjunctive studies to determine the status of the patient's visual system as a whole.

BCSC Section 5 includes a chapter on imaging in neuro-ophthalmology, which contains pages devoted to interpreting optical coherence tomography results (OCT), a chapter on functional neurological symptoms (conversion) and related disorders and includes an overview of the most recent diagnostic categorization of these disorders.

An overview of the anatomy of visual pathways is accompanied by numerous illustrations. Increase your understanding with videos, activities on orbital anatomy and the visual pathways, and an animation demonstrating visual snow.

Upon completion of Section 5, readers should be able to:

Explain a symptom-driven approach to the assessment of patients with common neuro-ophthalmic clinical manifestations and state an appropriate differential diagnosis
Describe a plan for the immediate management of patients with neuro-ophthalmic emergencies
Describe eye movement disorders and their anatomical relationship to the ocular motor system
Explain functional neurological symptom (conversion) disorder, factitious disorder, malingering, and list the various clinical tests that are used to evaluate functional vision loss
Describe the neuro-ophthalmic effects of the most common neurologic and systemic disorders affecting the visual and ocular motor systems