Neurogenic vestibular evoked potentials in the diagnosis of multiple sclerosis

To determine the value of neurogenic vesibular evoked potential (NVESTEP) studies in comparison with other paraclinical tests in demonstrating dissemination in time and space in Multiple Sclerosis (MS) and in identifying clinically silent lesions.

All patients in whom MS was suspected but the diagnosis of MS was not possible based on the McDonald criteria were included in this study. We studied 14 patients and performed visual, brainstem auditory, somatosensory and neurogenic vestibular evoked potentials in all patients, together with MRI and CSF analysis of oligoclonal bands (OB).

Two out of the thirteen patients could be movedfrom the category of "possible MS" to "MS" using the McDonald criteria based on an abnormal NVESTEP result.

Neurogenic vestibular evoked potentials are potentially useful in identifying clinically silent lesions in patients with possible MS.