Auditory p300 event-related potentials in children with Sydenham's chorea.

Abstract

P300 event-related potentials (ERPs), objective measures related to cognitive processing, have not been studied in Sydenham's chorea (SC) patients. To assess cognitive impairment with P300 ERPs. Seventeen patients with SC and 20 unaffected healthy children were included. Stanford-Binet test was used for psychometric assessment, and odd-ball paradigm was used for auditory ERPs. There was no significant difference in P300 latencies between the SC-pretreatment group, SC-posttreatment group and control group (p>0.05). Mean interpeak latencies in SC-pretreatment group and SC-posttreatment group showed significant prolongation compared with the control group (p<0.05). Mean interpeak latencies in SC-posttreatment group were significantly decreased compared with SC-pretreatment group (p<0.05). Compared to controls, patients did not show significant difference in Stanford-Binet intelligence examination. This report suggests that interpeak latencies and amplitudes of P300 ERPs could be useful for detecting and monitoring cognitive impairment in SC patients.