title: Evoked potential assessment of mental function during recovery from severe head injury.
abstract: Event-related potential recording and neuropsychologic testing were carried out on 18 severely head-injured patients and on a control group. At early stages of injury the patients had prolonged P3 latencies and reduced psychometric scores. In the assessment of individual patients the P3 latency proved to be a measure that diagnosed cognitive impairment with clinically acceptable levels of accurate classification. On retesting 4.6 +/- 1.6 months after trauma, normal values were found for the neuropsychologic measures and a residual latency prolongation for P3, indicating the P3 latency to be a sensitive index of subtle residual brain dysfunction due to head injury.
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001930:Brain Injuries / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005071:Evoked Potentials; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests