Multimodal evoked potentials in multiple sclerosis: a contribution to diagnosis and classification

The adoption of multimodal evoked potential procedures for the diagnosis and classification of multiple sclerosis is recommended as capable of revealing subclinical lesions of the central nervous system. The CSF test is also helpful, though in a different way. We present the results obtained by VEP, BAEP, SEP-median and SEP-tibial examinations and by CSF analysis (OB+) in a group of 189 MS patients, of whom 103 were diagnosed as definite. 58 as probable and 28 as suspected MS cases according to McDonald and Halliday, criteria. EPs frequently displayed clinically silent lesions, enabling us to reclassify 14 of the 37 potentially reclassifiable subjects (37.8%). The CSF test (OB+) allowed the reclassification of 31 out of the 58 reclassifiable cases (53.4%). In the present report we discuss the usefulness of the two methods.