title: Measuring the cortical silent period can increase diagnostic confidence for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
abstract: We evaluated a modified measurement of the cortical silent period (CSP) as a simple procedure to add further confidence in the diagnostic work-up for ALS. Thirty-seven consecutive patients with a suspicion of having ALS were included together with 25 healthy volunteers, and followed until a final diagnosis (ALS versus 'ALS mimic') was reached. Using a CSP cut-off value of 200 ms for males and 150 ms for females, the following test characteristics were obtained for ALS versus ALS mimics together with controls: sensitivity for excluding ALS 0.83, specificity 0.56 (males) and sensitivity 0.81, specificity 0.82 (females). A CSP longer than the mentioned cut-off values should alarm the clinician for the presence of a disorder other than ALS.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, University Medical Centre Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: H Jurgen
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Schelhaas
authors.forename: Ilse M
authors.initials: IM
authors.lastname: Arts
authors.forename: Sebastiaan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Overeem
authors.forename: Catharina J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Houtman
authors.forename: Henny
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Janssen
authors.forename: Bert U
authors.initials: BU
authors.lastname: Kleine
authors.forename: Marten
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Munneke
authors.forename: Machiel J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Zwarts
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000690:Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005071:Evoked Potentials; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012737:Sex Factors