Three-dimensional (3-D) eye movement analysis in patients with positioning nystagmus

Benign paroxysmal positioning vertigo (BPPV), and nystagmus (BPPN) is the commonest type of rotational vertigo. Typical BPPN is generally believed to arise from one posterior semicircular canal. If this is true, the syndrome would offer the unique possibility to study vestibular responses when just one single semicircular canal is excited. In this study we used search coils to measure 3-D eye positions in 3 patients with BPPN. We present a complete 3-D description of the eye movements induced in BPPN. We found that in our patients the eyes rotate rather precisely in the plane of one posterior semicircular canal, suggesting that BPPN in our cases is indeed solely produced by the posterior semicircular canal.