Vestibular Function in Patients With Vestibular Neuritis Experiencing Prodromal Dizziness

IntroductionIt is unknown whether prodromal dizziness (PD) before an attack of vestibular neuritis (VN) has an association with peripheral vestibular lesions. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the severity of vestibular dysfunction has an association with the presence of PD.MethodsWe reviewed the medical records of 88 consecutive unilateral VN patients with unilateral canal paresis in caloric testing. Caloric test, cervical vestibular evoked myogenic potential test to air-conducted sound (ACS cVEMP), ocular vestibular evoked myogenic potential test to bone-conducted vibration (BCV oVEMP) and video head impulse test (vHIT) were used as vestibular function tests. Binomial logistic regression analyses were performed to see whether the subjects' age, sex, disease duration or the presence of PD is associated with the presence of vestibular dysfunction.ResultsSeventeen (19%) experienced an episode of PD. There was no significant association between the presence of PD and abnormality in ACS cVEMPs, BCV oVEMPs, vHIT for the posterior semicircular canal (SCC) or vHIT for the lateral SCC. The presence of PD had a significant positive association with abnormality in vHIT for the anterior SCC (ASCC) (p = 0.0248).ConclusionsThe presence of PD in VN may be associated with the peripheral vestibular lesion.