Primary presenile dementia: the use of the visual evoked potential as a diagnostic indicator.

The use of the flash and pattern reversal visual evoked potential (VEP) in the diagnosis of primary presenile dementia was investigated. The results from 20 patients with primary presenile dementia were compared with those from a control group of normals of equivalent age and from a control group of 20 patients with cortical atrophy but no dementia. Presenile dementia caused a slowing of the major positive (P2) component of the VEP to flash stimulation. However, the VEP to pattern reversal stimulation (P100) was of normal latency. The difference between these two latencies characterises this unusual combination of results and is found to be a more specific diagnostic indicator of primary presenile dementia than the EEG or CT scan.