Pattern-VEP in Child Amblyopia

ABSTRACT

We assessed the potential clinical usefulness of pattern-visual evoked potentials (=PVEP) in the diagnosis of amblyopia. 15 children with bilateral amblyopia, 64 children with unilateral amblyopia and 11 children without amblyopia participated. After estimating of visual acuity for each eye. PVEP were also obtained. Of the 15 bilateral amblyopic children 12 (80%) showed abnormally lower amplitudes than normal children and amplitudes of the rest 3 patients were in normal range and their visual acuity were relatively upper range, 0.5-0.6. Of the 64 unilateral amblyopic children 4 of 9(44.4%) children who had 2 line difference of interocular visual acuity, 2 of 3(67.7%) children who had 3 line difference and all children except 1 who had 4 or more line difference(99.9%) showed abnormal interocular amplitude difference ratio(=IADR). As a result, bilateral and unilateral amblyopia can be identified by PVEP amplitude and IADR and abnormal IADR shows that interocular visual acuity differences is over 3-4 lines. We thought that PVEP could be used to find the amblyopic eye and monitor the effect of treatment in preverbal children also.