IL P.E.S. NELLO SCREENING SENSORI-MOTORIO DELLA S.M. ANALISI DELLA VARIABILITA E LATENZA DI RISPOSTA IN FUNZIONE DELLA SINTOMATOLOGIA

This article reports the data on somatosensory evoked potentials of 30 healthy subjects as controls, and of 52 patients with certain (25 = 48.1%), probable (13 = 25%), and possible (14 = 26.9%), multiple sclerosis. Two parameters were considered in the examination, namely: 'dispersion of the response' and 'increase of the latency' of the waves. These data were compared statistically with those derived from clinical examination of the sensory and pyramidal systems, using the scale of systems of Rose. It is concluded that there is an increase of the dispersion of the somatosensory evoked potentials of subjects with multiple sclerosis associated with an increase of latency. The first parameter is statistically correlated alone with the involvement of the pyramidal system in certain multiple sclerosis, while the second is positively correlated in all the classes of multiple sclerosis with the sensory system, and alone in the certain multiple sclerosis with the pyramidal system. These results indicate that the study of the dispersion of the response of the somatosensory evoked potential may bear witness - albeit to a lesser degree - of a pathological conduction of the demyelinated fibres.