Hala R. El Habashy¹, Amira M. El Gohary¹, Radwa M. Azmy¹,

Mohamed I. Hegazy², Zeinab S. Elsanabary³, Aliaa A. Tawfeek¹

Departments of Clinical Neurophysiology¹, Neurology², Ophthalmology³, Cairo University; Egypt

Background: The multifocal visual evoked potential (mfVEP) has been developed to examine conduction in the parts of the visual field that the conventional visual evoked potential (cVEP) does not, thus mfVEP better reflects the true state of the optic nerve by including information from fibers subserving more peripheral part of the visual field. Objective: To assess mfVEP changes in idiopathic intracranial hypertension (IIH) patients and to compare role of cVEP and mfVEP methods in detecting optic pathway affection in IIH patients. Methods: mfVEP and cVEP were recorded during the same session in 30 eyes of IIH patients with an active electrode at Oz to Fz (Oz-Fz) for the cVEP and the active electrodes of the mfVEP at the inion in the form of cross electrode fixed around the inion and the ground at Fz. Results: 19 eyes (63.3%) of the examined 30 eyes had abnormal cVEP; while 11 eyes (36.7%) had normal responses. 28 eyes (93.3 %) of the examined 30 eyes had abnormal mfVEP responses, while only 2 eyes (6.7%) had normal responses. Conclusion: mfVEP is superior to the cVEP in detecting local damage to the optic nerve in idiopathic intracranial hypertension patients. [Egypt J Neurol Psychiat Neurosurg.  2014; 51(4): 477- 482]

Key Words: Idiopathic intracranial hypertension; conventional visual evoked potentials; multifocal visual evoked potentials