Horner syndrome

Diagnosis

Your doctor will likely do tests in addition to a standard physical in order to ascertain the specifics of your symptoms and pinpoint a potential cause.

Horner syndrome diagnostic test

Based on your medical history and an evaluation of your symptoms, your doctor might be able to identify Horner syndrome.

By administering a medicated eye drop to both eyes, either one that will enlarge the pupil of a healthy eye or one that will constrict contract it, an eye specialist (ophthalmologist) can further confirm a diagnosis. The doctor can assess whether nerve damage is the root of issues in the suspect eye by comparing the responses in the healthy eye and that of the suspect eye.

Tests to find the damaged nerve area

Your symptoms may help your doctor focus on a more specific Horner syndrome cause. For the purpose of identifying the lesion or abnormality obstructing the nerve pathway, your doctor may also do further tests or request imaging studies.

If a third-order neuron irregularity—a disruption somewhere in the neck or above—is what causes Horner syndrome, your doctor may deliver an eye drop that dramatically dilates the healthy eye and only slightly dilates the problematic eye.

In order to identify the location of a potential irregularity causing Horner syndrome, your doctor might request one or more imaging tests from the list below:

• Chest X-ray
• Computerized Tomography (CT), a special X-ray imaging.
• Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), a method that creates precise images by combining radio waves and a magnetic field.
• MRA, or Magnetic Resonance Angiography, is a procedure used to assess blood vessels.

Treatment

The Horner syndrome has no specific treatment. When an underlying medical issue is successfully treated, Horner syndrome frequently goes away.