Multimodal evoked responses and cerebrospinal fluid oligoclonal immunoglobulins in patients with multiple sclerosis.

One hundred patients with possible, probable and definite multiple sclerosis (MS) were examined with somatosensory (SER), visual (VER) and brain stem auditory (BAER) evoked responses. Paired samples of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and serum were examined with agarose gel electrophoresis to detect intrathecally synthesized oligoclonal immunoglobin bands. Comparison of the number of abnormal CSF and evoked response tests showed that the CSF examination was slightly more sensitive in all diagnostic groups when compared to the results of multimodal evoked responses but that the two sets of test were in part supplementary. Oligoclonal immunoglobulin bands in the CSF were present in all patients with a duration of the disease of less than six months. VER seemed to be the most sensitive of the evoked tests in this particular group of patients.