Caloric and search-coil head-impulse testing in patients after vestibular neuritis

The objective of this study was to compare results of quantitative head-impulse testing using search coils with eye-movement responses to caloric irrigation in patients with unilateral vestibular hypofunction after vestibular neuritis. The study population consisted of an acute group (<3 days; N = 10; 5 male, 5 female; 26-89 years old) and a chronic group (>2 months; N = 14; 8 male, 6 female; 26-78 years old) of patients with unilateral vestibular hypofunction after vestibular neuritis. The testing battery included: (1) simultaneous measurement of eye and head rotations with search coils in a magnetic coil frame during passive Halmagyi-Curthoys head-impulse testing and (2) electronystagmography during bilateral monaural 44 degreesC warm and 30 degreesC-cold caloric irrigation. The main outcome measures were (1) the gain of the horizontal vestibulo-ocular reflex during search-coil head impulse testing and (2) the amount of canal paresis during caloric irrigation. All acute and chronic patients had a unilateral gain reduction during search-coil head-impulse testing. A pathological canal paresis factor was present in 100% of the acute patients but in only 64% of the chronic patients. The clinically suspected unilateral vestibular hypofunction resulting from vestibular neuritis was validated in all acute patients by both search-coil head-impulse and caloric testing. Hence, either of these tests is sufficient for diagnosis in the acute phase of vestibular neuritis. Chronic patients, however, were reliably identified only by search-coil head-impulse testing, which suggests that the low-frequency function of the labyrinths often becomes symmetrical, leading to a normal canal paresis factor.