Twenty-five patients in coma, each with a Glasgow Coma Scale measure less than or equal to five, were studied within the first three days of hospitalization with auditory brain-stem and middle- and long-latency evoked potentials. Survival was related to the simultaneous preservation of long- and middle-latency and brain-stem evoked potentials. The preservation of just middle-latency and/or brain-stem components did not correlate with survival. However, if the group of patients in coma due to head trauma was analyzed separately, survival could be related to the results of the brain-stem evoked potentials. There was no relationship between survival and the results of the initial clinical neurological examination. In patients who survived, there was no pattern of evoked potential preservation that related to the quality of survival.

The P3 component of both auditory-event- and visual-event-related potentials of 13 patients with Huntington's disease was studied and compared with the P3 component of normal patients. The latencies of the patients' P3 components were compared with the latency-age regression lines generated by the normal population in both modalities. A P3 latency was considered abnormal if it fell above the 2-SE limit for the latency-age regression line. The incidence of normal or abnormal P3 latencies in the two modalities was compared with the results of computed tomography, electroencephalography, and neuropsychological testing. Nine patients had abnormal P3 latencies and ten patients had abnormal visual P3 latencies, with seven having abnormal latencies on both tests and 12 having abnormal latencies on one of the two tests. An abnormal P3 latency in one modality did not imply an abnormal P3 latency in the other. An abnormality of the P3 latency did not correlate with an abnormality in results from computed tomography, electroencephalography, or neuropsychological testing.