Comparison of results of measurement of visual evoked potentials in patients with multiple sclerosis and neuroborreliosis

The aim of this study was to elucidate functional cerebral changes in patients suffering from neuroborreliosis and to compare the results with findings in clinically definite multiple sclerosis (MS). We tried to find out, whether the neuroborreliosis related impairment can be revealed by visual evoked potentials (VEPs) and if so, which of the two main parallel systems/streams of the visual pathway (parvocellular/ventral or magnocellular/dorsal) is affected predominantly. In 39 patients with MS and 100 patients with neuroborreliosis we investigated two types of VEPs - the pattern-reversal VEPs (R-VEPs) and the motion-onset VEPs (M-VEPs). In MS 25 patients exhibited pathological results in R-VEPs (significantly prolonged latency of the main P100 peak), which was accompanied by prolonged latency of the M-VEPs (N160 peak) in 14 cases. In neuroborreliosis: 46 patients exhibited pathological results in M-VEPs (significantly prolonged latency of the main N160 peak), which was accompanied by prolonged latency of the main peak of the R-VEPs (P100) in 14 cases only. Our study supports the concept of functional damage of the visual pathway in neuroborreliosis but in contrast to MS the neuroborreliosis seems to affect predominantly the magnocellular system and/or the dorsal stream.