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Quantitative Assessment of Cortical Auditory-tactile Processing in Children with Disabilities
Published on: January 29, 2014
[Visual and auditory evoked potentials parameters in multiple sclerosis in children]
Małgorzata Steczkowska1, Marek Kaciński, Sławomir Kroczka
1Pracownia Neurofizjologii. neupedkr@cm-uj.krakow.pl
Insights
Visual evoked potentials (VEP) and brainstem auditory evoked potentials (BAEP) show prolonged latencies in children with multiple sclerosis (MS). These findings highlight EP as crucial for diagnosing silent demyelinating lesions in pediatric MS.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Clinical Neurology
- Pediatric Medicine
Context:
- Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a demyelinating disease affecting the central nervous system.
- Evoked potentials (EPs), including visual (VEP) and brainstem auditory (BAEP), are diagnostic tools for MS.
- Previous studies noted EP latency and amplitude changes in demyelinating diseases.
Purpose:
- To characterize VEP and BAEP parameters in Polish children diagnosed with MS.
- To compare EP findings in pediatric MS patients with a healthy control group.
Summary:
- VEP analysis revealed significantly prolonged P100 latencies in MS children compared to controls; N75/P100 amplitudes showed no significant difference.
- BAEP analysis demonstrated significantly prolonged III and V wave latencies, along with extended I-III, III-V, and I-V interlatencies in MS children.
- The study included 10 pediatric MS patients (13-17 years) and 10 age/sex-matched controls.
Impact:
- Evoked potentials (VEP and BAEP) are valuable paraclinical tools for diagnosing MS in children.
- EPs aid in identifying clinically silent demyelinating lesions in pediatric MS patients.
- These findings contribute to the understanding of neurophysiological changes in pediatric MS.
Background:
Evoked potentials (EP) visual (VEP) and auditory (BAEP) are used in diagnostics of demyelinating diseases, especially multiple sclerosis (MS). Elongation of the EP latencies and interlatencies has been found so far and sometimes change in the shape of the responses or decrease of their amplitudes has been registered as well.
Aim Of The Study:
Characteristics of VEP and BAEP parameters in Polish children with MS.
Material And Methods:
Analysis included examination results of 10 patients with MS, at the age range from 13 to 17 years, 5 girls and 5 boys, hospitalized in the Department of Pediatric Neurology Chair of Pediatric and Adolescent Neurology Jagiellonian University Collegium Medicum in Krakow, in the years 2004-2010. Control group consisted of 10 children with similar age and sex distribution. VEP were registered during monocular stimulation with black and white checkerboard pattern reversal (pattern reversal VEP). Responses were registered from three active electrodes O1, O2 and Oz (according to the 10-20 International System of Electrode Placement). Latency of the maximal positive deflection P100, preceding N75 component, following N135 and N75/P100 amplitude were analysed. BAEP were evoked during alternating stimulation of the left and right ear, with the use of acoustic stimulus ("click") at 70 dB HL. The responses were registered from two receiving electrodes localized on the mastoid processes and from reference electrode Cz (according to the 10-20 International System of Electrode Placement). Latencies of I, II and V deflection and interlatencies: I-III, III-V, I-V were analyzed.
Results:
As far as VEP are concerned, significant elongation of P100 latencies was revealed in children from examined group when compared with control. N75/P100 amplitude differences were not statistically significant in both groups. BAEP analysis revealed significant elongation of III and V wave latencies and III-V, I-V interlatencies.
Conclusions:
Evoked potentials, visual and auditory are important paraclinical tests used in MS diagnostics in children. They are used in identification of clinically silent demyelinating foci.
