• L Julkunen, O Tenovuo, S K Jääskeläinen, and H Hämäläinen.
• Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Turku, Turku, Finland. laura.julkunen@utu.fi
• Acta Neurol. Scand. 2005 Jun 1; 111 (6): 366-72.

ObjectivesTo study the recovery of somatosensory deficits after acute stroke.Material And MethodsA detailed clinical examination of sensation, median nerve somatosensory evoked potentials (SEP), quantitative sensory tests (QST), and subjective evaluation were performed in five acute stroke patients at three control time points up to 12 months after the stroke.ResultsThe deficit recovered at least partially in all patients, mostly within 3 months after stroke. The improvement in warm and vibration detection thresholds occurred between 3 and 12 months. The SEP improved both by 3 and 12 months.ConclusionThe recovery of subjective sensory disturbance occurred in line with the improvement of the clinical sensory tests and QST. The most sensitive measure for somatosensory dysfunction at the early phase was graphesthesia. In our patients, initially normal SEP with a sensory deficit resulted in excellent clinical recovery, whereas initially absent SEP did not necessarily predict poor outcome.

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