BACKGROUND: The relationship between the parameters of the P300 potential and the degree or profile of cognitive decline remains controversial. The aim of our study was to evaluate parameters of auditory and visual P300 in patients with mild and moderate dementia of the Alzheimer type (DAT) and to correlate these ...

To investigate the frequency of positioning nystagmus in degenerative ataxic disorders, we examined downbeat positioning nystagmus (DPN) in 25 patients with spinocerebellar ataxia type 6 (SCA6) and 58 patients with other types of degenerative ataxia. DPN was observed in 21 of the 25 patients with SCA6 (84 %) versus only ...

We investigated the association between clinical and neurophysiological characteristics in patients with a clinical diagnosis of probable corticobasal degeneration (CBD), and searched for neurophysiological features supporting the diagnosis in life. Ten patients with clinically probable CBD underwent comprehensive neurological evaluation and brain MRI. Long latency reflexes (LLR), upper limb somatosensory ...

Different papers have emphasized the presence of visual-evoked potential (VEP) abnormalities in metabolic disorders. The aim of this study was to perform pattern VEP (PVEP) recordings in patients with chronic renal failure just before and 24 h after dialysis to test the effect of this procedure on visual pathway generated ...

BACKGROUND: Vegetarianism is an important cause of vitamin B12 deficiency, especially in countries like India. We managed 17 patients with neurological syndrome due to vitamin B12 deficiency in a tertiary care referral teaching hospital which caters to relatively affluent population. AIM: To evaluate neurophysiological and MRI changes in patients presenting ...

A reliable and reproducible method for precisely predicting the neurological outcome of patients with hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy after cardiac arrest is urgently needed in neurological intensive care units. We prospectively investigated the predictive power of serum concentrations of neuron-specific enolase (NSE) and protein S-100B (S-100B) measured on days 1, 2, 3 ...

The aim of the present study was to compare eyeblink conditioning in cerebellar patients with lesions including the territory of the superior cerebellar artery (SCA) and in patients with lesions restricted to the territory of the posterior inferior cerebellar artery (PICA). The cerebellar areas known to be most critical in ...

Conflicting reports on the usefulness of intraoperative monitoring of visual function by means of visual evoked potentials (VEPs) initiated this study. In 32 patients without visual problems, VEPs were recorded to evaluate the reliability for intraoperative monitoring with total intravenous anesthesia. All patients underwent noncranial surgery. Using a standard technique, ...

BACKGROUND: Former case reports suggest that monitoring of median nerve somatosensory evoked potentials (M-SEP) is unreliable in patients operated in the semi-sitting position due to the occurrence of evoked potential changes unrelated to neurological damage. This study was designed to analyze these changes in greater detail and confirm that these ...

The aim of the study was to detect abnormalities of sensorimotor interactions and their topographic distribution in the hand muscles of dystonic patients. We investigated the effect of electrical stimulation of the second (D2) and fifth (D5) fingers on the amplitude of motor evoked potentials (MEPs) in response to transcranial ...

Postexercise facilitation (PEF) with clinical reflexes, H-reflex, and T-reflexes at the ankle and knee was systematically studied in 16 patients with Lambert-Eaton myasthenic syndrome (LEMS). PEF was observed in ankle and knee deep tendon reflexes in five patients, in H-reflex in three patients, and in T-reflexes in six patients. When ...

OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study was to assess the sensitivity of motor-evoked potentials (MEPs) elicited by transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) in demonstrating the possible subclinical impairment of the corticospinal pathway after recovery, in patients with a clinical history of pure motor stroke (PMS) due to a single lacunar infarct ...

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate peripheral nervous system involvement in gyrate atrophy of the choroid and retina with hyperornithinemia (GA). BACKGROUND: GA is an inborn error of amino acid metabolism caused by mutations in the enzyme ornithine aminotransferase. Patients with GA have hyperornithinemia, progressive centripetal loss of vision, minor CNS abnormalities, and ...

Sudden death is common in patients with multiple system atrophy (MSA). In its early stages, the cerebellar presentation MSA-C can be indistinguishable from idiopathic late-onset cerebellar ataxia. We studied the hypoxic ventilatory response in MSA-C and idiopathic late-onset cerebellar ataxia patients. Six patients with idiopathic late-onset cerebellar ataxia that later ...

Agyria-pachygyria complex is a disorder of neuronal migration and organization. Patients suffer either motor or intellectual retardation. We report our experiences of 10 patients with agyria-pachygyria complex and evaluate their clinical features, electroencephalography, and evoked potentials. Of nine electroencephalography examinations, five patients demonstrated characteristically high-amplitude fast activity. One of nine ...

We sought to determine the activity of inhibiting and facilitating cortical circuits in areas surrounding a hand muscle motor representation in focal dystonia and in controls. In 15 patients with hand dystonia, 16 patients with blepharospasm, and age-matched controls, we applied suprathreshold transcranial magnetic stimuli with a figure-eight coil over ...

OBJECTIVES: To study facilitatory I-waves interaction, using two near threshold stimuli, to test both excitability and conductivity changes related to cortico-motoneuronal involvement in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) patients in different stages of the disease. METHODS: Pairs of threshold magnetic stimuli were applied over the motor cortex at inter-stimulus intervals (ISI) ...

In this study, R-R interval variation (RRIV) and sympathetic skin response (SSR) were used to evaluate autonomic nervous system (ANS) involvement in 25 patients with Behçet's disease. Normative values of RRIV and SSR were determined in a group of 25 healthy volunteers. R-R interval variation at rest (R%) and during ...

OBJECTIVES: To demonstrate possible advantages of combined (motor and sensory) versus single modality (either motor or sensory) intra-operative spinal cord monitoring and to investigate risk factors for post-operative neurological sequelae. METHODS: Recordings of lower limb motor evoked potentials (MEPs) to multi-pulse transcranial electrical stimulation (TES), and tibial nerve somatosensory evoked ...

To evaluate the effect of early treatment of congenital hypothyroidism on central nervous system development, auditory brainstem evoked potentials were determined in 32 patients with hyperthyrotropinemia diagnosed during neonatal screening. The patients included 27 with congenital hypothyroidism and 5 with transient hypothyroidism. Abnormal auditory brainstem evoked potential tracings were found ...

PURPOSE: To determine the a-wave latency of the electroretinograms (ERGs) recorded from control subjects and patients with retinal diseases. METHODS: The a-wave latency and implicit time (IT) were measured retrospectively from the ERGs of 40 control subjects and 99 patients. The patients included 9 with complete congenital stationary night blindness ...

AIM: To determine the value of the blink reflex as a predictor of outcome of idiopathic peripheral partial facial paresis. METHOD: The study included 30 patients suffering from acute idiopathic peripheral facioparesis and 30 age- and sex-matched healthy controls. Patients with symptomatic disease were excluded on the basis of neuroradiologic ...

In patients with degenerative ataxia, various abnormalities in motor cortex activation by transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) have been observed, including a reduction of intracortical facilitation and a lengthening of the silent period. However, the groups of patients examined in previous studies were heterogeneous, involving patients with autosomal-dominant and idiopathic cerebellar ...

We studied the Erb's point potential with supramaximal stimulation of the median nerve in 14 consecutive patients with clinical and electrophysiological evidence of unilateral brachial plexopathy and in normal controls. Both arms were studied in each individual. In each patient, the ratio of amplitude of recorded Erb's point potential from ...

The visual evoked potential (VEP) record in response to a pattern stimulus is a non invasive and reliable method of detecting central and peripheral nerve system abnormalities. VEP recording have been used in animals with fulminant hepatic failure, and also in-patients with hepatic encephalopathy and acute severe hepatitis. Our aims ...

OBJECTIVES: We aimed to test the hypothesis that subclinical cognitive brain dysfunction in cirrhotic patients would deteriorate after a transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt (TIPS) in the absence of clinically detectable hepatic encephalopathy. METHODS: Out of 49 consecutive cirrhotic patients receiving elective TIPS for recurrent variceal hemorrhage, we identified 22 patients ...

Short-latency somatosensory evoked potentials (SSEPs) were measured before and after intermittent cervical traction therapy to serve as objective indicators of therapy effectiveness. The subjects were 29 patients with myelopathy, 23 with cervical radiculopathy, 28 with cervical sprain, and 26 healthy individuals. SSEPs were recorded by stimulating the median nerve, and ...

BACKGROUND: The spinocerebellar ataxias (SCAs) are clinically heterogeneous disorders caused by triplet repeat expansions in the sequence of specific disease genes. Spinocerebellar ataxia type 8 (SCA8), originally described in a family characterized by pure cerebellar ataxia with slow disease progression, presents with expansion of combined CTA/CTG repeats. OBJECTIVE: To perform ...

Correlations were drawn between subscores of a cerebellar motor dysfunction (CMD) scale and simple reaction time (RT) and movement time (MT) in patients diagnosed with olivopontocerebellar atrophy (OPCA). Poor performance on CMD subscores was correlated with long disease duration and lengthening of visual and auditory RT and MT, with the ...

While evoked potentials are sensitive tools for diagnosing multiple sclerosis, little is known about their prognostic value and their role in determining the course of the disease. To validate the visual and motor evoked potentials (VEP and MEP) as measures for the course of multiple sclerosis, we examined prospectively 30 ...

An advanced method for analyzing the patterning of successive galvanic skin responses (GSR) is presented. The proposed method is based on principal component analysis in which the vector containing the measured signal is presented as a weighted sum of orthogonal basis vectors. The method is tested using measurements from 20 ...

Ataxia with vitamin E (Vit E) defciency (AVED) is an autosomal recessive disorder caused by mutations of the alpha tocopherol transfer protein gene. The Friedreich ataxia phenotype is the most frequent clinical presentation. In AVED patients, serum Vit E levels are very low in the absence of intestinal malabsorption. As ...

Chronic hypoxemia is known to cause peripheral neuropathy (PNP) in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients. We aimed to know how often PNP is encountered in such patients and the changes in the central nervous system (CNS) if any. We enrolled 32 patients (30 M, 2 F; mean age +/- ...

OBJECTIVE: The aim of the study was to investigate the abnormalities of brainstem auditory evoked potentials (BAEP) in patients with severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). METHODOLOGY: Twenty-one patients with severe COPD (16 men, five women; mean age: 64 +/- 6.5 years), in whom other causes of BAEP abnormalities had ...

BACKGROUND: As a parameter for the evaluation of the vestibular evoked myogenic potential (VEMP), amplitude has been used clinically. However, the significance of latency has not been considered. OBJECTIVE: To clarify the diagnostic value of latencies of the VEMP. DESIGN: We reviewed records of the VEMP of patients with various ...

OBJECTIVE: Patients with acromegaly have an increased risk of ventricular dysrhythmias and sudden death. Late potentials in a signal-averaged electrocardiogram (SAECG), a predictor of ventricular dysrhythmias, are frequently seen in patients after previous myocardial infarction, but little is known about the prevalence of late potentials in acromegaly. The aim of ...

OBJECTIVE: The aim of the study was to determine how odor processing is altered in patients with unilateral supratentorial brain tumors. METHODS: Olfactory event-related potentials (OERPs) were evaluated in 10 patients with unilateral brain tumors of the frontal or temporal lobe in response to linalool and allylcaproate. Both odors were ...

OBJECTIVES: Little is known about the frequency of abnormal visually evoked potentials (VEPs) in patients with respiratory chain disorders (RCDs). We thus wanted to investigate the frequency of abnormal VEPs in RCDs, how often VEPs are abnormal despite normal visual acuity, and which of the VEP variables are most often ...

The alien hand sign (AHS) is often encountered in patients with corticobasal ganglionic degeneration (CBGD), revealing a unilateral dysfunction of the motor system of unknown pathophysiology. We examined the possibility of an abnormal cortical representation of hand muscles in 10 patients with probable CBGD and a prominent AHS. Cortical maps ...

OBJECTIVES: To assess impairment of cognitive functions occurring in patients with posttraumatic headache as a consequence of a minor cranial trauma in the absence of organic damage involving the central nervous system. BACKGROUND: The term posttraumatic syndrome defines a stereotypic set of symptoms following traumatic brain injury that are subjective ...

We investigated the relationship between the latency of the Nb wave of the auditory evoked response (AER) and periods of awareness during propofol anaesthesia. In the anaesthetic room before cardiac surgery the AER was recorded continuously in 14 patients. Awareness was measured by the ability of the patient to respond ...

OBJECTIVES: To report follow-up studies of cerebellar stimulation in patients with acute cerebellar ataxia (ACA). METHODS: We studied two patients with ACA. One patient also had decreased deep sensations in the feet due to combined diseases such as diabetic polyneuropathy and lumbosacral radiculopathies. We applied the technique of electrical stimulation ...

The authors studied the origin of the scalp P13-like potential in median somatosensory evoked potentials, which have been reported to be preserved in patients with cervicomedullary lesions or in brain death. There were five patients with high to middle cervical lesions (C2/3 or C3/4 level). Small P13-like potentials after P11 ...

We describe a peculiar form of late onset paroxysmal cerebellar ataxia including clinical features similar to episodic ataxia type 2 (EA2) but unresponsive to acetazolamide. Four unrelated patients were clinically investigated. Neuropathological examination was performed in one patient and molecular analysis in all four. All 47 exons of CACNA1A were ...

The present study has been undertaken to describe brainstem auditory evoked potential (BAEP) changes in tubercular meningitis (TBM) and correlate these with CT scan and MRI findings. 24 patients with TBM were subjected to clinical evaluation and CT scan or MRI study. Outcome was defined by 3 month Barthel index ...

OBJECTIVE: Behcet's disease is the association of recurrent aphthous stomatitis with genital ulceration and eye disease. Neurologic involvement patterns include meningomyelitis, a brain stem syndrome, pyramidal and extrapyramidal abnormality and stroke. In the present study, subclinical involvement was investigated by using P300 in Behcet's patients without neurological manifestation. METHODS: Fifteen ...

PURPOSE: To verify the efficiency and objectivity of the pattern visual evoked potential (VEP) for organic disorders of the cortical visual system. METHODS: This retrospective study evaluated VEP in 19 patients diagnosed with psychogenic visual disturbance, 7 patients with malingering, and 37 age-matched normal volunteers. Transient (3 reversals per second) ...

A total of 13 patients, who were diagnosed with localized brainstem lesions using MRI, were investigated. The diagnoses were multiple sclerosis in five patients, brainstem hemorrhage in three patients, pontomedullary infarction in one patient and Wallenberg's syndrome in four patients. In addition, 42 ears of 21 normal adult volunteers were ...

The functional status of vestibulo-collic reflexes in the sternocleidomastoid (SCM) muscles was investigated in 24 patients with spasmodic torticollis using small, abrupt 'drops' of the head. None had been treated with botulinum toxin injections during at least 4 months preceding the study. Eight of the patients, four of whom had ...

We analysed somatosensory evoked potentials (SEPs) in the patients with juvenile myoclonic epilepsy (JME) in order to find out if sodium valproate (VPA) affects SEP latencies and amplitudes. SEPs were studied in 23 patients with JME receiving VPA monotherapy, eight patients with JME not receiving VPA, and a control group ...