1. Vagus somatosensory evoked potentials are delayed in Alzheimer's disease, but not in major depression.
- Author
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Polak T, Dresler T, Zeller JB, Warrings B, Scheuerpflug P, Fallgatter AJ, Deckert J, and Metzger FG
- Subjects
- Aged, Alzheimer Disease cerebrospinal fluid, Alzheimer Disease diagnosis, Amyloid beta-Peptides cerebrospinal fluid, Analysis of Variance, Case-Control Studies, Depressive Disorder, Major diagnosis, Female, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Psychiatric Status Rating Scales, Sensitivity and Specificity, Alzheimer Disease physiopathology, Depressive Disorder, Major physiopathology, Evoked Potentials, Somatosensory physiology, Reaction Time physiology, Vagus Nerve Stimulation
- Abstract
In Alzheimer's disease (AD), the degeneration of brainstem nuclei is different from major depression (MD). Thus, vagus somatosensory evoked potentials (VSEP) proposed for the functional assessment of brainstem nuclei should show prolonged latencies in AD but not in MD. In 55 AD patients, 57 MD patients and two age-matched control groups evoked potentials were recorded upon stimulation of the auricular branch of the vagus nerve. In the AD, not in the MD group, latencies were significantly longer as compared to controls. Thus, the method of VSEP could contribute to the important differential diagnosis of AD and MD in elderly patients.
- Published
- 2014
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