Clinical Application of Visual Evoked Potentials(Special Issue in Hornor of the Retirement of Professor Makoto Iwata at the Department of Neurology, Tokyo Womenu27s Medical University)

摘要

Visual evoked potentials (VEPs) are the mass responses to light stimuli recorded from electrodes placed on the occipital region and corresponding to processing visual information as it is transmitted from the retina to the visual cortices. The elicited by a pattern reversal checkerboard (PVEPs) are extremely sensitive to disorders of the optic nerves and optic chiasm, which is the basis of their clinical utility. The clinical utility of PVEPs is based on their ability (1) to demonstrate an abnormal visual function when the history or neurological examinations are equivocal, (2) to reveal the presence of clinically unsuspected malfunctions when a demyelinating disease is suspected, (3) to help define the anatomic distribution of a disease process, (4) to monitor changes objectively in a patientu27s status over time, and (5) to evaluate the function of visual processing. The practical aspects of VEPs will be discussed as they apply to the clinical diagnosis with special emphasis on PVEPs.