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How to Obtain Reliable Visual Event-related Potentials in Newborns
Published on: October 24, 2019
[Standards for carrying out and interpreting visual evoked potentials in children]
A Recasén Linares1, M C Pérez Abalo, J Guilarte Téllez
1Departamento de Neurofisiología Clínica, Hospital interprovincial Clinico Quirurgico Saturnino Lora, Santiago de Cuba, Cuba. dilu@medired.scu.sld.cu
Insights
Visual evoked potentials (VEP) using light-emitting diodes (LED) show age-related changes in children aged 1-5 years. Latency decreases and amplitude changes occur, with adult-like responses by age 4-6.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Ophthalmology
- Pediatrics
Context:
- Visual evoked potentials (VEP) are crucial for assessing visual pathway function.
- Light-emitting diodes (LED) offer a standardized method for VEP stimulation.
- Understanding VEP development in children is essential for clinical application.
Purpose:
- To describe visual evoked potentials (VEP) to light-emitting diodes (LED) in healthy children aged 1-5 years.
- To analyze age-related changes in VEP parameters (latency and amplitude) during neurodevelopment.
- To establish normative data for VEP in pediatric populations.
Summary:
- VEP to LED were recorded in 60 children (1-5 years old) under sedation.
- Results indicate significant reductions in VEP latency and amplitude (N1, P1) with increasing age.
- VEP morphology was reproducible, and sedation minimally affected P1 amplitude.
Impact:
- Normative VEP data for LED stimulation in children aged 1-5 years were established.
- Findings demonstrate significant maturational changes in the visual pathway.
- This study provides essential data for the clinical interpretation of VEP in pediatric practice.
Introduction:
An essential step, prior to the introduction into paediatric practice of visual evoked potentials (VEP) caused by stimulation with light emitting diodes (LED) is their description at different stages of maturity of the nervous system.
Patients And Methods:
We obtained VEP to LED in a group of 60 children aged between 1 and 5 years, who were functionally healthy and equally distributed with regard to age and sex. In each case we recorded the responses to monocular stimulation (right and left), binocular stimulation and without stimulation (replicas of each condition). The recordings were made under sedation with secobarbital at a dose of 3 mg/kg body weight.
Results:
Our results showed a significant reduction in the latency of all components (except P3) and the amplitude of N1 and P1, as a function of the age of the child. The response to LED is reproducible (especially intra individual) with up to three types of morphology observed. Sedation did not affect detection of the response. The only significant effect was a reduction in the amplitude of P1.
Conclusions:
We confirmed the changes due to maturity, reflected in a significant reduction of the latency of most components with increasing age. By between 4 and 6 years old the figures obtained were similar to those in adults. The results obtained give us the opportunity chance of publishing this standard data so that better use and interpretation of VEP to LED at an early age may be possible.
