Journal «Angiology and Vascular Surgery» • 

2009 • VOLUME 15 • №1

SOMATOSENSORY EVOKED POTENTIALS IN DIAGNOSIS OF CHRONIC CEREBRAL ISCHAEMIA IN PATIENTS WITH PATHOLOGY OF BRACHIOCEPHALIC ARTERIES

Lysichenkova O.V., Kravtsov Yu.I.
Chair of Neurology of the Paediatric Faculty Perm State Medical Academy named after Academician E.A. Wagner,
Perm, Russia

The present study was aimed at substantiating the practical significance of using the method of the somatosensory evoked potentials (SSEPs) in order to evaluate the functional state of the brain in patients suffering from chronic cerebral ischaemia (CCI) on the background of lesions of the brachiocephalic arteries (BCAs). With the method of the SSEPs, prior to reconstructive operation on the BCAs we examined a total of three hundred and seventeen 31-to-82-year-old patients. Of these, 156 patients were diagnosed as having a clinically symptom-free course of CCI, and the remaining 161 patients appeared to have clinically symptomatic CCI. The findings obtained in the present study revealed that the most pronounced alterations in the SSEPs corresponded to the clinically symptomatic course of CCI, coinciding with the side of the maximal changes in the BCA. Along with it, a clinically symptom-free course of CCI also demonstrated characteristic alterations in the SSEPs, which is an additional argument counting in favour of a surgical policy to pursue in the cohort of the patients concerned.

KEY WORDS: somatosensory evoked potentials, chronic cerebral ischaemia, brachiocephalic arteries.

P. 24-28

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