Sensory evoked potentials in infants with Down syndrome.
OBJECTIVE
To investigate the sensory functions of the peripheral to central pathways in infants with Down syndrome (DS) by sensory evoked potentials.


METHODS
Fifty-five infants, 30 DS infants and 25 controls, were examined by multimodal evoked potentials, including brainstem auditory evoked potentials (BAEP), visual evoked potentials (VEP) and short-latency somatosensory evoked potentials (SSEP).


RESULTS
No obvious difference was found in the peak latencies between the two groups for BAEP. Nine children with DS showed abnormal BAEP; six had hearing loss and three had prolonged wave I latencies. For VEP, the peak latencies of P(2) and N(2) were significantly longer and the amplitudes were smaller in the DS group than in the control group. Of the 30 infants with DS, five had significantly prolonged P(2) latencies and two had lower amplitudes. In SSEP, the mean latencies of N(20) and the interpeak latencies of N(13)-N(20) of the infants with DS showed apparent prolongation compared to the controls. Seven of 30 (23.3%) DS patients had prolonged N(20) latencies.


CONCLUSIONS
Our results indicate that various sensory deficits occur in patients with DS during the first year of life.
Chen
Yung-Jung
YJ
Department of Paediatrics, Medical College, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan. pcyj@mail.ncku.edu.tw
Fang
Peng-Cheng
PC
D000704:Analysis of Variance; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D004314:Down Syndrome / Q000150:complications / Q000503:physiopathology*; D016057:Evoked Potentials, Auditory, Brain Stem; D005073:Evoked Potentials, Somatosensory; D005074:Evoked Potentials, Visual; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D012678:Sensation Disorders / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric