Somatosensory evoked potential measures of conduction in peripheral and central pathways in children with protein-calorie malnutrition.

The effects of malnutrition on conduction in peripheral and central somatosensory pathways in humans, as measured by short-latency somatosensory evoked potentials (SEPs) have not been previously reported. A group of 28 children with kwashiorkor were compared to a control group of 35 children, aged 6-36 months. The malnourished group had longer reciprocal conduction velocities (ms/m) for pathways between the wrists and the brachial plexi (CL1 response) and between the brachial plexi and the upper cervical region (CL1-CVN). While an individual child with kwashiorkor had abnormal intracranial reciprocal conduction velocities (CVN-N1), the inter-group differences did not attain statistical significance, possibly due to inadequate indices of central pathway lengths. These findings expand the extent of conduction delays revealed by previous studies of peripheral nerve conduction velocities in PCM.