Reliability of caloric testing.

Objective To assess the long-term stability of caloric testing in patients. Methods In this retrospective study, Cronbach's alpha was used to determine whether caloric testing results are stable over time (up to 7 years) in patients who have not undergone interventions. After excluding invalid records, two hundred patients who underwent repeated caloric testing in the same lab over varying periods of time were included. Results Cronbach's alpha scores were 0.512 for unilateral weakness and 0.051 for the sum of caloric tests indicating that the stability of caloric tests is poor over long terms. Conclusion The stability of caloric testing with repeated testing over long terms is not reliable.