Neurological sciences : official journal of the Italian Neurological Society and of the Italian Society of Clinical Neurophysiology
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Comparative Study Controlled Clinical Trial
Contact heat-evoked potentials as a useful means in patients with Guillain-Barré syndrome.
Few objective methods have been utilized to identify the small myelinated fiber impairment causing neuropathic pain in Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS). In this study, contact heat-evoked potentials (CHEPs) were applied to study the nociceptive pathway in GBS. Sixty GBS patients and fifty healthy controls were enrolled. ⋯ However, no differences in N2 latency or N2-P2 amplitude were detected between the two subgroups of GBS patients with or without subjective lower limb paresthesia (P all >0.05). Moreover, there were no differences in N2 latency and N2-P2 amplitude among different groups when the waist was stimulated at the ASIS level. Our study suggested that CHEPs could be utilized as an objective and non-invasive tool to detect small myelinated fiber damage in GBS patients, especially for those without subjective paresthesia.