Editor’s note: “Need to Know” is a series inspired by common forum questions and comments from readers. Have a comment or question about MS? Visit our forum. This week’s question is inspired by the forum topic “Searching for a diagnosis” from May 14, 2018. Did you undergo evoked potential testing for your diagnosis? What was the experience like? Post your replies in the comments below or at the original forum entry.
The day I went in for evoked potential tests as part of my multiple sclerosis diagnostic protocol, I found the process mostly amusing, if only because I could appreciate the science behind the testing, and I enjoyed meeting other technologists who performed the kinds of tests that are similar to the work I did.
I work in the field of sleep medicine, where measuring electrical signals in the brain and body can help identify and diagnose medical conditions. Before I left my night job as a sleep technologist, thanks to MS, I would “hook up” patients for overnight sleep studies, then I’d collect recordings of their electrical signals to be scored and interpreted by a sleep physician.
But I must say that these nerve conduction studies were weird.
What exactly are evoked potential tests? And should a person with MS undergo them as part of their diagnosis protocol?
We’re all ‘on the grid’
The central nervous system (CNS) is the “electrical grid” between the brain and body. It delivers signals for millions of physical processes, from voluntary ones like eating to involuntary ones like the beating of your heart.
MS occurs when the CNS suffers damage from attacks by a dysregulated immune system. The result is both partial and complete demyelination, the damage done to the coating of these nerves.
When the grid goes down
A muscular activity like walking may result in clumsiness, muscle weakness, or a shift in balance due to demyelinated nerves.
I was greatly fatigued around the time of my MS diagnosis (1998). I had a visual evoked potential test and found the long black and white checkered test quite mind numbing and found myself tuning out, had a hard time focusing. Maybe this is part of the symptoms that show on the test.
Hi Leanne
It really is a bizarre test made even more difficult under the stress and fatigue of an active MS flare. The test most certainly does record the objective (measurable) slowness in your brain’s processing speed and in that way can confirm both your MS and can give insights into how severe it is. I hope you’re doing better now, and I’m sure you’re just as happy as I am not to have to do that checkerboard test ever again! –Tamara
I thought the article was great and was going to give it 5 stars BUT when I went to touch the stars (I thought you had to touch all 5), it recorded the first star I touched. Now I know!!
Thanks, Susan, don’t sweat it! We appreciate the feedback!
Tamara
1985: Double vision, then a lot of tests. Said either brain tumor or MS. Then went to Northwestern and had evoked response tests. All were negative except the last one, audio evoked response. Had >99% correlation with MS.
2020: Still have MS and learning to adapt more each day with it and still keep on smiling!
A person I met over 30 years ago, who was living with MS for quite a while said that if she had a choice of a disease to live with, it would be MS. Often times when I’m feeling down about living with MS, I try to reflect on her words so that I may shift my thoughts from sorrow to gratitude!