title: Somatosensory evoked potentials in children with bilateral spastic cerebral palsy.
abstract: Alterations were monitored of somatosensory evoked potentials in children with bilateral spastic cerebral palsy and these findings correlated with relevant clinical and laboratory parameters. Fifty-one children with bilateral spastic cerebral palsy (31 boys, 20 girls; age range 24-168 months) participated in the study. Abnormal somatosensory evoked potentials latencies were recorded in 23 of 34 (67.6%) cortical recordings of the median nerve and in 38 of 51 (74.5%) cortical recordings of the tibial nerve. Abnormal tibial nerve somatosensory evoked potentials were strongly correlated with abnormal electroencephalogram (P=0.014), while impaired median nerve recordings were correlated with abnormal visual evoked potentials (P = 0.02) and a history of perinatal or neonatal infection (P=0.016). Furthermore, perinatal/neonatal infection adversely effected the recordings in both tibial and medial nerves in quadriplegic patients (P=0.023). Sensory impairment is strongly related with abnormal visual evoked potentials, abnormal electroencephalogram, and a history of perinatal or neonatal infection.
authors.affiliation: 1st Department of Pediatrics, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece.
authors.forename: Eleni P
authors.initials: EP
authors.lastname: Teflioudi
authors.forename: Dimitrios I
authors.initials: DI
authors.lastname: Zafeiriou
authors.forename: Euthymia
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Vargiami
authors.forename: Eleutherios
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Kontopoulos
authors.forename: Ioannis
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Tsikoulas
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002547:Cerebral Palsy / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004558:Electric Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005073:Evoked Potentials, Somatosensory / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008475:Median Nerve / Q000503:physiopathology; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D013979:Tibial Nerve / Q000503:physiopathology