Determination of evoked potential in coke oven workers

Objective To explore the effect of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons on the evoked potential in coke oven workers.Methods Forty five healthymale coke oven workers were selected randomly froma coke plant of a state owned steel enterprise in Taiyuan city according to their work sites.Twenty five controls of unexposed to poly cyclic aromatic hydrocarbons(PAHs)occupationally were selected from the same enterprise.Urine samples were collected mimediately after working shift.The level of urinary 1 hydroxypy rene was determined by High Performance Liquid Chromatography (H-PLC).General information of workers correlated with the investigation was collected with questionnaire by trained in terviewers.The sensory,aud itory and patternvisual evoked potentials were monitored by neuqopack M 1(Nihon Kohden corporation).Results No significant difference was found among four groups of different age,length of service,smoking,drinking,educational level and unhealthy food consumption.Urinary 1 hydroxypyrene were significant diffenert among four groups,with a tendency of oven top>oven side>oven bottom>control.Compared with the controls,there was no significant difference in the sen sory evoked potencial,aud itory evoked potencial and pattern visual evoked potencial among four groups.Conclusion The results suggest that PAHs have no effect on the sensory veoked potencial,auditory evoked potencial and pattern visual evoked potencial in coke oven workers.