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VESTIBULAR EVOKED MYOGENIC POTENTIALS IN PATIENTS WITH BENIGN PAROXYSMAL POSITIONAL VERTIGO INVOLVING EACH SEMICIRCULAR CANAL

Seok Min Hong, Jae Yong Byun, Seung Geun Yeo, Moon Suh Park, Chang Il Cha

Department of Otorhinolaryngology, College of Medicine, Kyunghee Universitry, Seoul, South Korea

■ OBJECTIVES: The reports related to VEMP in BPPV patients were not much and have showed various findings. In that reports, aging factor was not considered and studies were not examined as the type of each three semicircular canal. Therefore we investigated the findings of VEMP(vestibular evoked myogenic potential) in patients with BPPV(benign paroxysmal positional vertigo) according to the type of involved canal, considering age.

■ METHOD: 53 patients with BPPV and 84 normal subjects were enrolled in this study. The VEMP findings in patients with BPPV were interpretated using three normal subgroups divided by aging.

■ RESULTS: Third subgroup aged more than 60 years showed statistically more prolonged p13 and n23 latencies and lower amplitude than other two subgroups. 13 of 53 patients showed abnormal VEMP responses on affected side when compared with age-related control subgroup. The VEMP findings among types of canal had no difference.

■ CONCLUSION: The BPPV could show abnormal findings on VEMP irrespective of type of involving semicircular canal when consider age on VEMP, suggesting degeneration of maculae of saccule.