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Updated: Dec 25, 2025

Testing of all Six Semicircular Canals with Video Head Impulse Test Systems
Published on: April 18, 2019
The semicircular canal function tests contribute to identifying unilateral idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing
Ruirui Guan1, Zhu Zhao1, Xiaotao Guo2
1Department of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of USTC, Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, University of Science of Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230001, China.
Background:
Few studies focused on the prognosis of unilateral idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss (UISSNHL) with vertigo.
Objectives:
To describe how the semicircular canal (SCC) function tests may prove helpful in the diagnosis of UISSNHL with vertigo.
Material And Methods:
59 UISSNHL patients underwent audiometry, caloric test and video head impulse test (vHIT). The correlation between hearing loss and SCC dysfunction was analyzed.
Results:
The results showed significant differences of hearing loss grades (p = 0.004) and hearing loss configurations (p = 0.009) between UISSNHL patients with and without vertigo. In vHIT, the gains of horizontal canal (HC) and posterior canal (PC) were more frequently impaired compared with that of anterior canal (AC). The abnormal rate of caloric test was the highest, followed by the abnormal rates of HC and PC gain. A significant difference of abnormal rate of HC gain was only found between the mild and moderate UISSNHL patients with and without vertigo (p = 0.029).
Conclusion:
Abnormal SCC function happens frequently in patients with profound hearing loss. Ipsilesional abnormal vHIT (especially the HC gain) in the presence of abnormal caloric test is a pattern of findings observed in mild and moderate UISSNHL patients with vertigo.
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