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Published on: June 30, 2014
Multiple sclerosis plaque related to abnormal somatosensory evoked potentials
Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry
|October 1, 1979
Summary
Mild multiple sclerosis (MS) patients can have subclinical spinal cord lesions. These lesions may be linked to neurological events like ruptured intracranial aneurysms.
Area of Science:
- Neurology
- Neurophysiology
Background:
- Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic demyelinating disease of the central nervous system.
- Intracranial aneurysms are a significant cause of subarachnoid hemorrhage.
Observation:
- A patient with mild MS experienced a fatal ruptured intracranial aneurysm.
- Somatosensory evoked potentials (SEPs) were recorded months prior to death.
- The SEPs showed abnormalities potentially related to a cervical spinal cord plaque.
Findings:
- The cervical spinal cord plaque was located at the root entry zone.
- This plaque did not cause clinically apparent sensory deficits.
- Abnormalities in SEPs correlated with the subclinical cervical spinal cord lesion.
Implications:
- Subclinical lesions in MS may have broader systemic implications.
- Evoked potentials can detect neurological abnormalities not evident clinically.
- This case highlights potential links between MS pathology and vascular events.
Related Concept Videos
01:33Somatosensation
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