Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2011 Mar;7(1):34-9.
doi: 10.3988/jcn.2011.7.1.34. Epub 2011 Mar 31.

Visual evoked potentials in guillain-barré syndrome

Levent Güngör  1 , Inci Güngör, Hilal Eser Oztürk, Musa Kazım Onar
Affiliations

Visual evoked potentials in guillain-barré syndrome

Levent Güngör et al. J Clin Neurol. 2011 Mar.

Abstract

Background and purpose: Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) is an acute demyelinating polyneuropathy with various clinical features. Optic neuritis occurs in rare cases. In this study we determined the incidence and patterns of visual evoked potential (VEP) abnormality in GBS in association with ophthalmologic findings.

Methods: Thirty-two patients with a diagnosis of GBS were included in the study. The correlation between pathologic VEPs and categories of neurologic deficit and electrophysiological findings were examined statistically.

Results: The patients ranged in age from 19 to 77 years. Five cases (16%) had abnormal VEPs. All five of these patients exhibited increased P100 latency differences between the two eyes. Other abnormalities were prolonged p100 latency, increased interocular amplitude difference, and distorted p100 configuration. Pathologic signs on ophthalmologic examination were observed in 80% of patients with abnormal VEPs. VEP abnormality was never present in pure axonal forms. There was no significant correlation between pathologic VEP and cerebrospinal fluid protein level or categories of neurologic deficits.

Conclusions: Involvement of the optic pathways is not a frequent finding in GBS. When present it is always asymmetric and generally accompanied with pathologic findings on ophthalmologic examination. VEPs may be abnormal in different clinical variants of GBS, and especially in demyelinating forms.

Keywords: guillain-Barré syndrome; optic neuritis; visual evoked potentials.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors have no financial conflicts of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Pathologic VEP of a patient with GBS (no. 3). The P100 latency is elongated on the left side, and has a low amplitude (lower trace), while it is normal on the right side (upper trace).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Hughes RA, Hadden RD, Gregson NA, Smith KJ. Pathogenesis of Guillain-Barré syndrome. J Neuroimmunol. 1999;100:74–97. - PubMed
    1. Hartung HP, Kieseier BC, Kiefer R. Progress in Guillain-Barré syndrome. Curr Opin Neurol. 2001;14:597–604. - PubMed
    1. Igarashi O, Fujioka T, Kishi M, Normoto N, Iwasaki Y, Kurihara T. Guillain-Barré syndrome with optic neuritis and cytomegalovirus infection. J Peripher Nerv Syst. 2005;10:340–341. - PubMed
    1. Durand MC, Goulon-Goéau C, Schweitzer A, Chéliout-Héraut F, Raphael JC, Gajdos P. [Electrophysiologic study of 10 cases of Miller Fisher syndrome] Rev Neurol (Paris) 2001;157:72–79. - PubMed
    1. Zgorzalewicz M, Zielińska M, Kilarski D. [Brain stem auditory and visual evoked potentials in children and adolescents with Guillain-Barré syndrome] Neurol Neurochir Pol. 2004;38:S31–S37. - PubMed