[Comparative studies of the results of caloric vestibular tests and classical torsion swing tests]

Vestibular Paresis (PL) and Directional Preponderance (PD) are the measurements found on caloric testing described by Fitzgerald and Hallpike (1942); frequency nystagmogram is the typical result of the torsion swing test of the French school. The differences between the two methods stimulated us to make a comparison of the results. Seventy-eight patients affected by unilateral peripheral vestibulopathy in various degree of compensation were submitted to both tests. Frequency nystagmogram was transformed, for calculation purposes, into normalized percentual difference (SSP). SSP and PD were found highly significantly correlated and were considered as equivalent from the statistical point of view. SSP and PL were completely independent at slow velocity stimulation. Using high velocities of stimulation a correlation was demonstrated between SSP and PL; unfortunately to the elevation of SSP corresponds a so minimal increasing of PL that the correlation is scarcely useful from the clinical point of view.