Visual Evoked Potentials Changes among Patients with Chronic Mustard Gas Exposure

To report the chronic effect of mustard gas exposure on visual pathway measured by visual evoked potentials.Patients and

 The present study included 150 participants in three groups. The case group included 50 patients with chronic mustard gas exposure inflicted on them during the Iran - Iraq war (1980 - 1988).  The first control group included fifty veterans of the Iran -  Iraq war with no history of exposure to mustard gas and the second control group included 50 age and sex matched participants with no history of involvement in the war. Visual evoked potentials including latency and amplitude of VEP, P100 peak wave were measured in all participants and were compared between groups.

The result of the present study showed significant delay in mean latency of VEP, P100 peak in the case group compared to both control groups, while the difference in amplitude of VEP, P100 peak was not statistically significant.

A significant delay in the latency of VEP, P100 peak among patients with a chronic history of mustard gas exposure was found, which might be due to disturbances in visual pathway caused by mustard gas exposure.Keywords: Mustard gas; Evoked potentials; Visual; Iran.