Mayo Clinic Health Manager
Get free personalized health guidance for you and your family.
Get Started
About our e-newsletters
- Free e-newsletters
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- We do not share your e-mail address
Housecall, our weekly general-interest e-newsletter, keeps you up to date on a wide variety of health topics with timely, reliable, practical information, recipes, blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts and more. Our biweekly topic-specific e-newsletters also include blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts, and other useful information that will help you manage your health.
Housecall Archives
Mayo Clinic Housecall
Stay up to date on the latest health information.
What you get
- Free weekly e-newsletter
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- Recipes, tools and other helpful information
- We do not share your e-mail address
Tests and diagnosis
By Mayo Clinic staffTo diagnose Horner syndrome, your doctor will start by asking about your medical history and doing a complete physical examination.
Pupil dilation test
If you have Horner syndrome, your pupil will open (dilate) slower than normal. Your doctor can evaluate this by placing drops of medication in your eye that force your pupil to dilate. The way the pupil responds to the eye drops will help confirm or deny a diagnosis of Horner syndrome.
Follow-up tests
A physical exam and pupil dilation test can confirm a diagnosis of Horner syndrome. However, to find the underlying cause of Horner syndrome you'll likely need other tests. Depending on your situation, these may include:
- Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of your head, neck and chest to identify tumors, signs of stroke, carotid artery dissection and other conditions that may affect the sympathetic nerves of your face.
- Blood tests or urine tests to detect substances produced by cancers.
- Kedar S, et al. Horner's syndrome. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed Feb. 4, 2009.
- Riordan-Eva P, et al. Neuro-ophthalmology. In: Riordan-Eva P, et al. Vaughan & Asbury's General Ophthalmology. 17th ed. New York, N.Y.: McGraw-Hill; 2004. http://www.accessmedicine.com/content.aspx?aID=3091826&searchStr=horner's+syndrome. Accessed Feb. 4, 2009.
- Ropper AH, et al. Disorders of ocular movement and pupillary function. In: Ropper AH, et al. Adams and Victor's Principles of Neurology. 8th ed. New York, N.Y.: McGraw-Hill; 2005. http://www.accessmedicine.com/content.aspx?aID=969125&searchStr=horner's+syndrome. Accessed Feb. 4, 2009.
- Birinyi F, et al. Ophthalmologic conditions. In: Knoop KJ, et al. Atlas of Emergency Medicine. 2nd ed. New York, N.Y.: McGraw-Hill; 2002. http://www.accessmedicine.com/content.aspx?aID=787476&searchStr=horner's+syndrome. Accessed Feb. 4, 2009.
- Mahoney NR, et al. Pediatric Horner syndrome: Etiologies and roles of imaging and urine studies to detect neuroblastoma and other responsible mass lesions. American Journal of Ophthalmology. 2006;142:651.
- Braverman RS. Eye. In: Hey WW, et al. Current Diagnosis & Treatment: Pediatrics, 19th ed. New York, N.Y.: McGraw-Hill; 2009. http://www.accessmedicine.com/content.aspx?aID=3401185&searchStr=horner's+syndrome. Accessed Feb. 4, 2009.
