HELP

An eye doctor will be able to spot certain brain abnormalities.

They'd certainly see anything that was causing an increase in pressure inside the head, such as a tumour, or even a large aneurysm. The optic disc at the back of the eye - the bit they examine with a bright light, asking you to look in different directions - is actually the one visible part of the brain. Even the slightest increase in pressure inside the skull will show up as swelling of the optic disc. Pressure on the brain is just about the only cause for swelling of the optic disc, and an eye doctor would always refer you to a neurologist immediately on seeing this.

An eye doctor will also spot nystagmus - rapid, involuntary movements of the eyes. This can be side-to-side, up-and-down or rotational, depending on the cause. Nystagmus can be a sign of problems with the brain, particularly the cerebellum, but is more likely to be generated by inner ear conditions.

Tumours of the pituitary gland (in the brain, directly behind the nose) are sometimes found by eye doctors too, as they cause progressive loss of sight around the edge of the visual field, eventually leading to tunnel vision as they grow larger. However, there are a lot of eye conditions that also cause loss of the visual field without any brain involvement.

In short, an eye doctor can see signs of quite a lot of brain lesions by examining the eye, but by no means all of them. If you think you have some kind of brain abnormality, you'd need to see a neurologist.

Buddy of mines eye doc is the one who discovered he had a tumor on his pituitary gland. Was pushing on his optic nerve. Made his eye site all screwy.