Korean J Otolaryngol-Head Neck Surg.  2001 Dec;44(12):1253-1258.

The Clinical Significance of Vestibular Evoked Myogenic Potential Evoked by Click Sound

• Park SH
• Cha CI
• Kim KH
• Kim H
• Hwang MG
• Hong NP

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The human vestibule is known to be able to induce cervical muscle potential secondary to strong acoustic stimulations. This reflex is assumed to originate in the saccule, and is called "vestibular evoked myogenic potentials" (VEMP). The responses consist of alternatively positive and negative successive waves (p13-n23). This study was designed to evaluate the clinical significance of VEMP. MATERIALS AND METHOD: We studied the difference among the latencies of p13, n23 and the amplitudes among the 10 normal volunteers, 5 patients with sudden sensorineural hearing loss and 10 patients with vestibulopathy. And we compared the result of the caloric test and VEMP in patients with vestibulopathy.
RESULTS
In the normal group, VEMP was detected in all and all of the sudden sensorineural hearing loss patients showed VEMP both in the affected and unaffected side. In unilateral vestibulopathy patients, VEMP were present in the unaffected side but not in the affected side. The difference between the amplitudes and latencies were not found in those cases where VEMP was detected. In vestibulopathy patients, VEMP were well correlated with the result of the caloric tests.
CONCLUSION
We confirmed that VEMP is originated from the vestibule, not from cochlea. VEMP could provide itself as an addition method for testing the vestibule.

Keyword

Vestibular evoked myogenic potential; Vestibulopathy; Sternocleidomastoid muscle

MeSH Terms

Acoustics
Caloric Tests
Cochlea
Healthy Volunteers
Hearing Loss, Sensorineural
Humans
Reflex
Saccule and Utricle