Study of brainstem auditory evoked potentials in early (grade I) essential hypertensive patients

Background: Essential hypertension is one of the most common world’s health diseases. It frequently affects central nervous system (CNS) by producing micro-infarctions which results into altered evoked potentials. Previous studies have shown correlation between hypertension and brain stem auditory evoked potentials. But very scarce data is available on all the parameters of BAEP and essential hypertension especially “amplitude ratio” which distinguishes between central and peripheral impairment. This study was undertaken to evaluate the brain stem auditory evoked potentials (BAEPs) as early marker of cognitive damage in essential hypertension.Methods: BAEPs were recorded in 50 hypertensive subjects and in 50 normotensive controls. Absolute peak latencies, interpeak latencies of different waves and amplitude ratio were compared in both the groups by using unpaired student’s T test.Results: Significant changes in absolute latencies of wave I and V, Interpeak latency I-III, III-V and I-V and amplitude ratio V/I was observed in hypertensive group as compared to control group.Conclusions: Findings of the current study suggests that hypertension does affect the neuronal excitation in the auditory pathways, thereby suggesting that BAEP may provide the early evidence for the presence of CNS dysfunction in the patients of essential hypertension