Somatosensory evoked potentials and sensory involvement in multiple sclerosis: comparison with clinical findings and quantitative sensory tests Export

@article{citeulike:3245091, abstract = {Sensory disturbances are one of the most common findings in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). However, they are usually assessed at the standard neurological examination only. Q uantitative Sensory Tests (Q STs) for temperature and vibratory sense allow a more objective evaluation. In a group of 19 clinically definite MS patients, we compared vibratory and temperatur e thresholds with sensory symptoms or signs at clinical neurological examination and somatosensory evoked potentials (SEPs) at the four limbs. The frequency of abnormalities of clinical symptoms/signs, vibration threshold and median SEPs were 69\%, 33\% and 55\%, respectively. C orrelation between degree of abnormality of SEPs and clinically assessed vibration sense (V) was statistically significant (P B-0.007; Spearmann rank coefficient), as well as between SEPs and vibration perceptio n threshold (P B-0.02). C linical evaluation of thermal sense did not show false positive results compared to quantitative thermal threshold, but false negative findings (35\%). This study suggests that the combined use of vibration threshold and SEPs allows a better objectivation of sensory function, allowing the detection of subclinical abnormalities and possibly reducing the number of false positive results introduced by clinical assessment. Moreover, Q STs are to be preferred to clinical evaluation in the assessment of thermal sense, due to their superior sensitivity. 10.1191/1352458503ms908oa}, author = {Leocani, Letizia and Martinelli, Vittorio and Natali-Sora, Maria G. and Rovaris, Marco and Comi, Giancarlo}, citeulike-article-id = {3245091}, citeulike-linkout-0 = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1191/1352458503ms908oa}, citeulike-linkout-1 = {http://msj.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/9/3/275}, citeulike-linkout-2 = {http://view.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12814174}, citeulike-linkout-3 = {http://www.hubmed.org/display.cgi?uids=12814174}, day = {1}, doi = {10.1191/1352458503ms908oa}, journal = {Mult Scler}, keywords = {abstract, evoked-potencials, multiple\_sclerosis}, month = {June}, number = {3}, pages = {275--279}, posted-at = {2008-09-12 12:00:42}, priority = {2}, title = {Somatosensory evoked potentials and sensory involvement in multiple sclerosis: comparison with clinical findings and quantitative sensory tests}, url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1191/1352458503ms908oa}, volume = {9}, year = {2003} }

TY - JOUR ID - citeulike:3245091 L3 - citeulike-article-id:3245091 N2 - Sensory disturbances are one of the most common findings in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). However, they are usually assessed at the standard neurological examination only. Q uantitative Sensory Tests (Q STs) for temperature and vibratory sense allow a more objective evaluation. In a group of 19 clinically definite MS patients, we compared vibratory and temperatur e thresholds with sensory symptoms or signs at clinical neurological examination and somatosensory evoked potentials (SEPs) at the four limbs. The frequency of abnormalities of clinical symptoms/signs, vibration threshold and median SEPs were 69%, 33% and 55%, respectively. C orrelation between degree of abnormality of SEPs and clinically assessed vibration sense (V) was statistically significant (P B-0.007; Spearmann rank coefficient), as well as between SEPs and vibration perceptio n threshold (P B-0.02). C linical evaluation of thermal sense did not show false positive results compared to quantitative thermal threshold, but false negative findings (35%). This study suggests that the combined use of vibration threshold and SEPs allows a better objectivation of sensory function, allowing the detection of subclinical abnormalities and possibly reducing the number of false positive results introduced by clinical assessment. Moreover, Q STs are to be preferred to clinical evaluation in the assessment of thermal sense, due to their superior sensitivity. 10.1191/1352458503ms908oa IS - 3 JF - Mult Scler EP - 279 TI - Somatosensory evoked potentials and sensory involvement in multiple sclerosis: comparison with clinical findings and quantitative sensory tests VL - 9 SP - 275 KW - abstract KW - evoked-potencials KW - multiple_sclerosis AU - Leocani, Letizia AU - Martinelli, Vittorio AU - Natali-Sora, Maria AU - Rovaris, Marco AU - Comi, Giancarlo PY - 2003/06/01/ UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1191/1352458503ms908oa ER -