The influence of caffeine on calorics and cervical vestibular evoked myogenic potentials (cVEMPs)

Prior to undergoing vestibular function testing, it is not uncommon for clinicians to request that patients abstain from caffeine 24 hr prior to the administration of the tests. However, there is little evidence that caffeine affects vestibular function.

To evaluate whether the results from two tests commonly used in a clinical setting to assess vestibular function (i.e., calorics and the cervical vestibular evoked myogenic potential [cVEMP]) are affected by caffeine.

Subjects were tested with and without consuming a moderate amount of caffeine prior to undergoing calorics and cVEMPs.

Thirty young healthy controls (mean = 23.28 yr; females = 21). Subjects were excluded if they reported any history of vestibular/balance impairment.

The Variotherm Plus Caloric Irrigator was used to administer the water, while the I-Portal VNG software was used to collect and analyze subjects' eye movements. The TECA Evoked Potential System was used for the cVEMP stimulus presentation as well as for the data collection. During cVEMP collection, subjects were asked to monitor their sternocleidomastoid muscle contraction with a Delsys EMG monitor. IBM SPSS Statistics 20 was used to statistically analyze the results via paired t-tests.

Analysis of the data revealed that ingestion of caffeine did not significantly influence the results of either test of vestibular function.

The results revealed that a moderate amount of caffeine does not have a clinically significant effect on the results from caloric and cVEMP tests in young healthy adults. Future research is necessary to determine whether similar results would be obtained from individuals with a vestibular impairment, as well as older adults.