[Neurophysiologic findings in subcortical arteriosclerotic encephalopathy (Binswanger disease)]

The subcortical arteriosclerotic encephalopathy may be diagnosed intra vitam by CT. From the pathoanatomical point of view subcortical arteriosclerotic encephalopathy probably is related to cerebral small vessel disease, leading to lacunar state and white matter demyelination. Brainstem lacunes are rarely found by CT. But electrophysiological methods are easily employed to demonstrate brainstem dysfunction and demyelinating lesions. We now report our electrophysiological findings in 43 patients showing clinical and CT-morphological signs of subcortical arteriosclerotic encephalopathy. The latencies of visual evoked potentials (VEP) in 36% of these patients were found to be significantly different from those measured in healthy persons aged more than 65 years. About 75% of the subcortical arteriosclerotic encephalopathy patients had abnormalities of the electrically elicited blink reflex. In 26 patients blink reflex and VEP were examined. In only 6 of them the electrophysiological findings were normal.