Early brain-stem auditory evoked responses in vertebrobasilar transient ischemic attacks.

Brain-stem auditory evoked response (BAER) studies were performed one to 16 days after a vertebrobasilar transient ischemic attack (VB TIA) in eight patients and repeated two to 16 days later in six of them. Initially, all showed absence of waveforms, prolonged interpeak latencies, and/or amplitude reduction. Five of six patients showed reversal of BAER changes to normal; the remaining patient returned to near normal. Normalization occurred six to 24 days after the VB TIA. These results are different from those reported in other studies. Early sequential BAER studies may be helpful in differentiating VB TIA from brain-stem infarction and syndromes that mimic VB TIA.