Analysis of directional preponderance of caloric test in evaluation of vestibular dynamic compensation

Objective To analyze the dynamic compensation evaluation. Methods value of directional preponderance （DP） in vestibular One hundred fifty-five patients with sudden deafness accompanied vertigo were asked to accept routine vestibular tests including the spontaneous nystagmus （SN） and caloric test with video-nystagmography. DP, SN and unilateral weakness （UW） were selected as the observation parameters. Then the correlation analysis between DP, SN, UW and course of disease were investigated respectively. The change characteristic of the three parameters was also analyzed in the course of vestibular compensation. Results Of the 155 patients, there were negative correlations between SN, DP and course of disease （ r s= - 0. 386, rs = - 0. 424, P 0. 05 ）, and also positive correlation（ rs = 0. 274, P < 0. 05 ） between DP and UW. According to three parameters were positive or negative, three main groups （ DP ＋ UW ＋ SN ＋ , DP ＋ UW ＋ SN - and DP - UW ＋ SN - ） in DP, UW, SN. The course of disease in three main groups was positively skewed distribution. Median was 6 days, 10 days and 20 days respectively. Through Kruskal-Wallis Test, X2 =24. 63, P <0. 05, there was statistical significance among the above three main groups. Conclusions DP keeps on changing in the acute stage, static and dynamic compensation stage of peripheral vestibular disease. This indicates that DP can be considered as an objective evaluation index of vestibular dynamic compensation and as a guidance of the vestibular rehabilitation evaluation. Key words: Caloric tests; Nystagmus, pathologic; Hearing loss, sudden; Vertigo