Bilateral vestibulopathy is a condition with vestibular hypofunction of both inner ears. Patients with this diagnosis will often complain of dizziness and/or imbalance in darkness and when walking in uneven terrain and will often also experience oscillopsia. Predominant etiology is idiopathic. A 73-year old man with complaints of dizziness for 2 days. Objective findings included spontaneous nystagmus, a positive Romberg test with eyes closed, and a pathological video head impulse test. Initial audiometry only revealed bilateral presbycusis. Following gradual non-complete remission of vertiginous symptoms, the patient was discharged and scheduled for follow-up. The patient was later readmitted due to gradual progressive bilateral hearing deterioration alongside persisting vertiginous symptoms. Various additional tests all came out negative, and the condition was classified as idiopathic acute bilateral vestibulopathy with concomitant progressive deterioration of binaural hearing. The patient was later referred to bilateral cochlear implantation. Acute monosymptomatic bilateral vestibulopathy is difficult to diagnose, as it requires very specific tests that are not routinely done by neurologists. Acute bilateral vestibulopathy with concomitant progressive deterioration of binaural hearing leading to bilateral anacusis is indeed so rare that it has not been possible to find any literature describing a similar case.
Objectives To determine normative vestibular-ocular-reflex (VOR) gain values for the vertical semicircular canals (SCCs) within a Danish cohort of healthy adults. Normative data regarding the vertical SCCs are sparse. Assessing the function of all 6 SCCs is important, as some vestibular diseases may selectively affect specific SCCs.
Methods A prospective cross-sectional study of 60 subjects aged 18–65 years with no previous vestibular disorders. All subjects underwent complete examination of all 6 SCCs with EyeSeeCam video head impulse test (vHIT) system.
Results Mean VOR gain values of the right anterior and left posterior canal were 1.46 and 1.43 respectively. For the left anterior and right posterior canals, mean VOR gain values were 0.96 and 0.97 respectively.
Conclusions Our results suggest that mean VOR gain is close to 1.4 in the right anterior and left posterior plane and close to one for the left anterior and right posterior plane when testing the vertical SCCs in healthy adults with the EyeSeeCam vHIT system.
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