Posturography: head stabilisation compared with platform recording. Application in vestibular disorders

Posturography with simultaneous recording of the head movements (H-recording) and of the pressure of the feet on the platform (P-recording) has been applied in patients with peripheral vestibular disorders. For the whole testing (four tests with visual and proprioceptive interaction) 40% showed an identical degree of abnormality for the measurements of surface in P- and H-recording. In a large majority of the patients, showing a difference between H- and P-recording, this difference indicated a lower degree for the H-recording. Concerning the four tests separately, the differences for eyes closed tests were more frequently positive (larger surface for head movements) than for eyes open tests. Also on foam rubber there was more difference than on stable platform. Especially the test with eyes closed on foam rubber showed more differences. These data show that in a minority of patients the comparison of H-recording and P-recording affords complementary information showing in these cases some independence of head stabilisation and foot-stabilisation. Head-recording can be used as a posturographic technique but one has to keep in mind the possible differences with platform-recording.