The Functional Head Impulse Test to Assess Oscillopsia in Bilateral Vestibulopathy

Conclusion: The fHIT seems to be a feasible test to quantify oscillopsia in BV since, unlike DVAtreadmill, it correlates with the experienced oscillopsia measured by the OSQ, and more BV patients are able to complete the fHIT than DVAtreadmill. Introduction Gaze stabilization is one of the many functions of the vestibular system. The vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR) enables gaze stabilization during high-frequency head movements by moving the eyes directly in opposite direction of the head movement. A decreased VOR therefore impairs gaze stabilization, which leads to head or body movement-induced blurred vision (oscillopsia). Oscillopsia is one of the main symptoms of bilateral vestibulopathy (BV) (1). BV is a heterogeneous chronic condition in which vestibular function is severely impaired or absent on both ears (2). BV patients have a variety of symptoms and report a significant reduction in quality of life. Therapeutic options are often limited to balance training, but studies are now focusing on restoring vestibular function with a vestibular implant (3–6). To treat patients with BV, the condition must be first recognized by clinicians. The diagnosis of BV is often under- or misdiagnosed. Therefore, sufficient inclusion criteria and validated patient-reported outcome measures are needed for patients with BV. One of the components is to quantify the experience of oscillopsia in BV patients (2, 7). Oscillopsia can be quantified subjectively by questionnaires, ...
Source: Frontiers in Neurology - Category: Neurology Source Type: research