[Visual evoked potentials elicited by pseudorandom stimulation in macular degeneration].
OBJECTIVE
To investigate the effect of a central scotoma on the amplitude, latency, and temporal frequency characteristics(TFCs) of the visual evoked potentials(VEPs) elicited by a pseudorandom binary stimulus(PRBS).


METHODS
Patients with age-related macular degeneration(AMD) were selected, and VEPs were recorded from 26 eyes with AMD(17 eyes with visual acuity of less than 0.2, and 9 eyes with visual acuity between 0.3 and 0.9). Nine eyes of age-matched normal volunteers served as controls. To acquire the PRBS-VEPs, one eye was stimulated with a PRBS stimulus. The first order kernel was calculated from a cross correlation between PRBS and VEPs. The Fourier transformed first-order kernel was used as the TFC of the VEPs.


RESULTS
The P2 latency of the first order kernels was delayed(p < 0.05), and the P2-N2 amplitude was reduced(p < 0.01) in AMD. A depression of the TFC values in the 6-18 Hz band was prominent in the patients with AMD(p < 0.01).


CONCLUSIONS
The TFC, were strongly correlated with the visual acuity of patients with macular degeneration.
Nemoto
N
N
Department of Visual Science and Ophthalmology, Tokyo Medical and Dental University Graduate School.
Mori
H
H
Kiyosawa
M
M
Wang
W F
WF
Mochizuki
M
M
Momose
K
K
D000368:Aged; D005074:Evoked Potentials, Visual; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008268:Macular Degeneration / Q000503:physiopathology*; D008297:Male; D016555:Matched-Pair Analysis; D008875:Middle Aged; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D011930:Reaction Time; D014792:Visual Acuity