Cervical vestibular evoked myogenic potentials and video head impulse test in Ménière disease

Ménière's disease is among the most frequent causes of vestibular disorders. Although it is a clinical diagnosis, a better understanding of the pathophysiology and clinical course of the disease through tests would allow improvement in the prognosis and more effective treatments.

To describe the results of the cervical vestibular evoked myogenic and video head impulse test in patients with a defined diagnosis of Ménière's disease and to correlate them with disease duration.

The sample consisted of 50 participants, of whom 29 comprised the study group and 21 the control group. The individuals were submitted to a questionnaire, otoscopy, audiometry and vestibular function assessment through the cervical vestibular evoked myogenic potential and video head impulse test.

For the video head impulse test, lateral canal gain values below 0.77 were considered abnormal and for the vertical channels, below 0.61. The percentages of normality were 82.76% for lateral, 89.65% for posterior and 91.37% for anterior canals. For the cervical vestibular evoked myogenic potential, the upper limits of normal for latencies were defined as 18.07ms for p13 and 28.47ms for n23; and in the SG, 19.57% showed prolongation of latency of p13 and 4.35% of wave n23, whereas 18.96% did not show biphasic potential.

For the video head impulse test, a decreased gain of the vestibulo-ocular reflex for the lateral canal was observed, with a higher incidence of overt type corrective saccades compared to the control group. For the cervical vestibular evoked myogenic potential, there was a significant difference between the groups for the inter-amplitude parameter, including for asymptomatic ears. There was no correlation between the results of the tests and disease duration.