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The significance of luminance on visual evoked potentials in diagnosis of MS

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Summary

In view of the fact that with psychophysical methods monocular luminance changes may increase the detection rate of pathological interocularlatency differences in MS patients, we studied the influence of stimulus luminance on the detection rate of MS using checkerboard visual evoked potentials. Decrements of stimulus luminance covering a range of three log units were unable to increase the detection rate of VEP. Regression coefficients of the luminance-latency functions did not differ in MS patients and normals. Contrary to the hypothesis tested, the diagnostic significance of VEP decreases with decreasing stimulus intensity.

Zusammenfassung

Nachdem psychophysische Experimente nahelegen, daß schon nach geringen Leuchtdichteänderungen die interokulären Latenzdifferenzen bei MS-Patienten beträchtlich zunehmen, untersuchten wir den Einfluß von Leuchtdichteänderungen auf die diagnostische Trefferrate der VEP bei der Multiplen Sklerose. Über einen Bereich von drei logarithmischen Einheiten brachten Leuchtdichteänderungen keine Zunahme der diagnostischen Ausbeute. Auch die Regressionskoeffizienten der Funktion VEP-Latenz gegen Leuchtdichte unterschieden sich bei MS-Kranken nicht von denen bei Gesunden. Da bei abnehmender Leuchtdichte die Trefferquote der VEP sogar deutlich abnimmt, muß diese Variable in der Klinik beachtet werden.

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Diener, H.C., Koch, W. & Dichgans, J. The significance of luminance on visual evoked potentials in diagnosis of MS. Arch Psychiatr Nervenkr 231, 149–154 (1982). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00343836

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