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Primary Presenile Dementia: The Use of the Visual Evoked Potential as a Diagnostic Indicator

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

Graham F. A. Harding ,
Christine E. Wright  and
Arnold Orwin
Graham F. A. Harding*
Affiliation:
Department of Vision Sciences, Aston University, Birmingham B4 7ET
Christine E. Wright
Affiliation:
Department of Vision Sciences, Aston University
Arnold Orwin
Affiliation:
Woodbourne Clinic, Birmingham, and Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham
*
∗Correspondence
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Abstract

The use of the flash and pattern reversal visual evoked potential (VEP) in the diagnosis of primary presenile dementia was investigated. The results from 20 patients with primary presenile dementia were compared with those from a control group of normals of equivalent age and from a control group of 20 patients with cortical atrophy but no dementia. Presenile dementia caused a slowing of the major positive (P2) component of the VEP to flash stimulation. However, the VEP to pattern reversal stimulation (P100) was of normal latency. The difference between these two latencies characterises this unusual combination of results and is found to be a more specific diagnostic indicator of primary presenile dementia than the EEG or CT scan.

Type
Papers
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 147 , Issue 5 , November 1985 , pp. 532 - 539
Copyright
Copyright © 1985 The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

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