Brain-stem auditory evoked potentials in children with perinatal encephalopathies

Objective: We sought to describe if neurological damage, in terms of brain lesions, syndrome and syndrome severity led to abnormalities in the brain-s tem auditory evoked potentials (BAEPs) in order to provide a profile of chi ldren that could be used as an indicator of subsequent neurological sequela e. We analyzed the BAEPs from a group of children having prior evidence of neurological damage and determined the presence of neurological sequelae wh en the subjects were 3 years old. Methods: Brain-stem auditory evoked potentials (BAEPs) were carried out in a group of 154 children with perinatal neurological damage. The children we re classified with neurofunctional (clinical and EEG alterations) or organi c and neurofunctional brain disease (clinical, EEG and image alteration) an d were all followed from the first month of life and serially for 3 years. We used principal component analysis (PCA), clustered analysis and linear c orrelation to determine association between BAEPs, risk factors and future sequelae. Results: Latencies of BAEPs decreased significantly with age, and the time of conduction was modified by the presence of neurological damage. All stat istical analyses suggested positive and significant associations between ri sk factors (trophism and condition at birth), and the latencies of waves I, III and V as well as with IPL III-V (interpeak latency) and I-V. PCA showe d that IPL I-III was also positively associated with condition at birth, se verity of the neurological syndrome and encephalopathy. In addition, we fou nd that the presence and type of sequela reflected changes in the latencies of the waves, as well as IPLs, primarily those of IPL I-Ill. Conclusions: Our results suggest that statistical methods are often needed to analyze neurological damage. The relation between BAEPs, risk factors an d neurological sequelae allowed us to obtain a profile of children, which c an be then used as an aid in the prognosis of children having a risk of dev eloping neurological sequelae. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All r ights reserved.