[Significance of visual evoked potentials (VEP) in the diagnosis of Parkinson disease].

The aim of the study was to check whether VEP in Parkinson disease are pathological and if there is a relationship between VEP studies and severity, duration of the disease. The authors recruited 54 patient with idiopathic Parkinson disease with significant differences in laterality of bradykinesia, rigidity and tremor. The examined group consisted of 25 males and 29 females, aged from 34 to 82 years; mean age 70.47; the disease duration--from 3 month to 20 years; mean duration 7.76. The asymmetry of extra-pyramidal symptoms, severity of disease with UPDRS and activities of daily living with Schwabach and England were evaluated. Age, disease duration, treatment duration, current dose and side effects of levodopa were taken into account. Neurological examination and VEP were performed before the morning dose of levodopa U-test and Spearman correlation were used for statistical analysis. The VEP latencies were found in 11 patients (15.94%). Mean VEP latency for the right eye in this group was 116.83 (range: 122.3-111.0) and 120.45 (range: 161.5-111.0) for the left. In the group of patients with normal VEP the results were respectively 99.91 and 100.39. There were no significant correlations between the VEP and the asymmetry of neurological symptoms, disease severity and duration, treatment duration, the dose and side effects of Levodopa. There was a significant relationship between VEP latency and patients age and activities of daily living.