[On the diagnosis of extraocular muscle disease. Clinical application of computer reformations (author's transl)].

The clinical application and differential diagnostic value of computer reformations in patients with Graves' disease and ocular myositis are demonstrated. Computer reformations parallel to the course of the muscle allow the identification of abnormal soft tissue densities on axial section as a swelling of individual muscles. Computer reformations perpendicular to the course of the muscle demonstrate its true cross sectional diameter. In most clinical instances, the rectus muscles are sufficiently visualized on computer reformations 90 degrees to the orbital axis. The vertical recti are then shown as true cross sections, whereas the horizontal recti are dissected in an equally oblique plane. A swelling of the inferior oblique muscle is well visualized by sagittal reformations lateral to the insertion of the inferior rectus muscle. With the use of computer reformations muscle enlargement can be diagnosed with certainty. They therefore provide valuable information in the evaluation of motility disturbances as well as in the analysis of specific patterns of muscle involvement in various orbital diseases.