Ocular vestibular evoked myogenic potentials in response to air-conducted 500 Hz short tones: Effect of stimulation procedure (monaural or binaural), age and gender

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Versino, Maurizio^{a; *} | Colnaghi, Silvia^b | Ranzani, Marina^c | Alloni, Roberto^a | Bolis, Carlotta^a | Sacco, Simone^a | Moglia, Arrigo^a | Callieco, Roberto^a

Affiliations: [a] Dipartimento di Scienze del Sistema Nervoso e del Comportamento, Università di Pavia, Fondazione Istituto Neurologico Nazionale C. Mondino, IRCCS, Pavia, Italy | [b] Dipartimento di Sanità Pubblica, Medicina Sperimentale e Forense, Università di Pavia, Fondazione Istituto Neurologico Nazionale C. Mondino, IRCCS, Pavia, Italy | [c] Fondazione Istituto Neurologico Nazionale C. Mondino, IRCCS, Pavia, Italy

Correspondence: [*] Corresponding author: Maurizio Versino, Dipartimento di Scienze del Sistema Nervoso e del Comportamento, Università di Pavia, Fondazione Istituto Neurologico Nazionale C. Mondino, IRCCS, Via Mondino 2, 27100, Pavia, Italy. Tel.: +39 0382 380340; Fax: +39 0382 24714; Mobile: +39 3334438963; E-mail:mversino@unipv.it

Abstract: BACKGROUND: The ocular vestibular myogenic potentials (oVEMP) can be elicited by monaural air-conducted sound stimulation, and are usually recorded from the contralateral eye. In clinical setting a binaural stimulation would save time and require less effort from the subjects. OBJECTIVE: We evaluated the differences between monaural and binaural stimulation, and the possible effect of age and gender on oVEMP parameters. METHODS: Air-conducted oVEMP were recorded by binaural and by monaural stimulation in a group of 54 normal subjects, aged from 12 to 83 years, and in 50 vestibular patients. From each side, we measured the latency of the N1 component, and the peak-to-peak N1-P1 amplitude. For both parameters we also computed the asymmetry ratio. RESULTS: In normal subjects binaural stimulation produced slightly larger responses than monaural stimulation; detectability, latency and amplitude ratio were the same for the two techniques. We found no differences related to gender, and the age-induced amplitude decline was likely to be negligible. oVEMP recorded not in an acute phase of their disorder, proved to be abnormal in about 20% of the patients, and the normal or abnormal findings obtained either with monaural or with binaural stimulation were always concordant. CONCLUSIONS: The oVEMP obtained after binaural and monaural stimulation are very similar, and they are largely independent from age and gender.

Keywords: Vestibular evoked potential, stimulation modality, aging, gender

DOI: 10.3233/VES-150554

Journal: Journal of Vestibular Research, vol. 25, no. 3-4, pp. 143-149, 2015