Clinical application of somatosensory cerebral evoked response for the localization and the level diagnosis of neuronal lesions.

A new SER recording system using the bilateral simultaneous peripheral nerve stimulation on cervical, thoracic and lumbar segments was found to be helpful as a diagnostic aid for the localization and the level diagnosis of sensory neuronal lesions including peripheral nerves. SER abnormalities were observed in 32 (76.2%) of the 42 cases with cerebrovascular disease, in 11 (64.7%) of the 17 cases with spinal cord lesions and 12 (75.0%) of the 16 cases with peripheral nerve lesions. As an interesting finding, marked SER abnormalities corresponding with the level and the distribution of the lesions were observed in cases with spinal cord tumor, myelopathy and polyneuropathy. In a case with recurrent myelitis, lesions of different levels of spinal cord were suggested from the SER changes. The recording system gives also valuable information about chronological modifications of the lesions, and may reveal subclinical neuronal damage in a certain neurological disorder.