Reproducibility (test-retest) of vestibular evoked myogenic potential

There is still no consensus in the literature as to the best acoustic stimulus for capturing vestibular evoked myogenic potential (VEMP). Low-frequency tone bursts are generally more effective than high-frequency, but recent studies still use clicks. Reproducibility is an important analytical parameter to observe the reliability of responses.

To determine the reproducibility of p13 and n23 latency and amplitude of the VEMP for stimuli with different tone-burst frequencies, and to define the best test frequency.

Cross-sectional cohort study. VEMP was captured in 156 ears, on the sternocleidomastoid muscle, using 100 tone-burst stimuli at frequencies of 250, 500, 1000, and 2000Hz, and sound intensity of 95dB nHL. Responses were replicated, that is, recorded three times on each side.

No significant difference was observed for p13 and n23 latencies of the VEMP, captured at three moments with tone-burst stimuli at 250, 500, and 1000Hz. Only the frequency of 2000Hz showed a difference between captures of this potential (p<0.001). p13 and n23 amplitude analysis was also similar in the test-retest for all frequencies analyzed.

p13 and n23 latencies and amplitudes of VEMP for tone-burst stimuli at frequencies of 250, 500, and 1000Hz are reproducible.