There are conflicting reports concerning attenuation of the frontal N30 component of the median-derived somatosensory evoked potential in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). We found that the mean N30 latency (28.03 +/- 2.50 msec) and amplitude (2.30 +/- 1.58 microV) obtained with stimulation of the affected arm of 10 patients with predominantly unilateral PD were not significantly different from those obtained from the unaffected arm (mean latency, 28.14 +/- 2.47 msec; mean amplitude, 2.43 +/- 1.65 microV) or from 10 age-matched controls (mean latency, 29.01 +/- 1.88 msec; mean amplitude, 1.92 +/- 0.64 microV). Three patients had an N30 of abnormal amplitude; in two, responses were absent with stimulation of either side, and in one there was a response asymmetry exceeding the normal range, with the smaller response elicited from the affected arm. Thus, only one of 10 patients had a diminished N30 consistent with the clinical findings. We conclude that the N30 is unlikely to be clinically useful in the assessment of patients with PD.
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Garcia et al. (1995) studied this question.