Nazliel B, Irkec C, Batur Caglayan HZ, Capraz Yildirim I, Akkaya E and Kenan I
Objective: Studies on the relationship between cerebral blood flow velocities and event related potential (ERP)
changes in non-dementia multiple sclerosis (MS) are completely lacking. The aim of the present study was to evaluate
the association between cerebral blood flow velocities and ERP parameters in MS patients.
Methods: 30 patients (8 male, 22 female,) with a mean age of 37 ± 8 years (range: 21-56) with a diagnosis of
relapsing remitting MS according to Mc Donald’s criteria were included. Their mean EDSS score was 1.8 ± 1.7 (range:
0-5.5) and mean duration of disease was 70 ± 64 (range: 3-228) months. The patients were subdivided according to
their mean disease duration. The group with the shorter disease duration comprised 15 MS patients who had been
diagnosed with MS for less than 5 years(MS-short), and the group with the longer duration comprised 15 patients with
disease durations exceeding 5 years(MS-long)
Results: In the MS patients, the N200 potentials recorded from the frontal, central, and parietal regions were
prolonged relative to the controls and the differences were significant The P300 latencies recorded from the frontal,
central and parietal regions were significantly longer in patients with disease durations exceeding 5 years. The mean
middle cerebral artery (MCA) blood flow velocities did not differ from those of normal controls.
Conclusion: Although there was a negative correlation between MCA velocity and frontal and parietal N100
latencies, there was no clear correlation between MCA blood flow velocity and ERP parameters. An important finding
of this study is a positive correlation between MCA blood flow velocity and Mini Mental State Examination scores. This
is the first study to evaluate the relationship between ERP and cerebral blood flow velocity using transcranial Doppler
ultrasound. No definite relationship was shown.