Multimodality evoked potentials in severe athetoid cerebral palsy: correlation with clinical features and all-night polygraphical data

We examined the correlation between the clinical and electrophysiological features, short latency somatosensory evoked potentials (SSEPs), auditory brainstem responses (ABRs), electrically elicited blink reflexes (BRs) and all-night polysomnographical examination (PSG) data in eight patients with severe athetoid cerebral palsy (ACP). Absence ABRs were observed in cases who had suffered from severe neonatal hyperbilirubinemia (posticteric ACP), and in most of them gaze abnormalities and a significant reduction in rapid eye movements during REM sleep, as observed on PSG, coexisted. Prolongation of the interpeak latency, N13-N20, of SSEPs existed concurrently with disturbed late components of BRs in two cases of posticteric ACP. The phasic contractions of the submental muscle during sleep were impaired in most of the patients. Multimodality evoked potentials together with PSGs seem to be useful for assessing brainstem dysfunctions in ACP and might also be of use for elucidating the pathogenesis of the episodic sudden death in ACP.