[Use of the head shaking test in the posturographic diagnosis]

This study on equilibrium disturbances employed the Head Shaking Test (HST), with manoeuvres similar to those used in studying the Vestibule Oculomotor Reflex (VOR) as well as the Vestibule Spinal Reflex (VSR), following a posturographic technique. Two hundred and forty-eight patients suffering of equilibrium disturbance of peripheral (168 cases) and central (80 cases) origin underwent study in four different conditions: Open Eyes (OE), Closed Eyes (CE), Open Eyes with Head Retroflection (OER) and Closed Eyes and HST (CE-HST). The results obtained (47.9% positive results to the test) confirm the high sensitivity and specificity of the CE-HST. The correlation with posture alterations, peripheral as well as central, resulted highly significant (P less than 0.0001), with a notable reduction of false negatives. A positive correlation between CE-HST and HST-Ny was not detectable thus confirming two distinct patterns for VOR and VSR. Furthermore, no correlation between CE-HST and postural pathology of cervical or positional origin was documented.