The Dizziness Handicap Inventory does not correlate with vestibular function tests: a prospective study

AbstractThe Dizziness Handicap Inventory (DHI) is believed to quantitate the handicap related to the presence or severity of underlying vestibular dysfunction. However, patients with chronic vestibular diseases may manifest various degrees of behavioural and physiological adaptation resulting in variances of the DHI. Our primary study objective is to evaluate the correlation between the DHI and measurable vestibular parameters. Secondarily, we compared DHI among different vestibular disorders (central, peripheral and functional), and different types of anatomic deficits (semicircular canal vs otolithic). We also correlated the DHI and posturography. We prospectively evaluated 799 patients with precise vestibular diagnoses using video head impulse testing (vHIT), caloric irrigation, and cervical/ocular vestibular-evoked myogenic potentials (c/oVEMP). Posturography was done for 84 patients. All participants completed the DHI. No significant correlation was found between DHI and (1) vestibulo-ocular reflex parameters: unilateral weaknessr = − 0.018, total caloricsr = 0.055, vHIT rightr = 0.007, vHIT leftr = − 0.091, vHIT asymmetryr = 0.013; (2) otolith parameters: cVEMP amplitude rightr = − 0.034, amplitude leftr = − 0.004, asymmetryr = 0.016; oVEMP amplitude rightr = 0.044, amplitude leftr = − 0.007, asymmetryr = − 0.008. Patients with central vestibular disorders had higher DHI than those with peripheral (z ...
Source: Journal of Neurology - Category: Neurology Source Type: research