Age-related differences in parameters of vestibular evoked myogenic potentials.
CONCLUSIONS
The statistically significant correlations between vestibular evoked myogenic potential (VEMP) parameters and age may be due to hair cell loss of the otolith organ and/or to degenerative changes of the vestibular neural pathway. These findings indicate that age should be taken into account when interpreting VEMP results. It is also important to determine a standard method for performing VEMP and a universal index for comparison among laboratories.


OBJECTIVE
VEMP, which measures the surface electric potential from the cervical muscle evoked by sufficiently loud sounds, is a useful tool to evaluate vestibule-colic reflex function. We have assayed the effect of age on VEMP results.


METHODS
After excluding subjects with a previous history of dizziness, middle ear pathology, or other inner ear symptoms, a total of 97 healthy volunteers (194 ears) were included. All VEMP parameters were analyzed to find differences related to side and gender, as well as the relationship between age and each VEMP parameter.


RESULTS
Age was correlated with all VEMP parameters. Latency of p13, n23 showed a negative correlation and amplitude of p13-n23 showed a positive correlation with age. Differences between the right and left sides were not significant.
Lee
Sun Kyu
SK
Department of Otolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery, College of Medicine, KyungHee University, Seoul, Korea.
Cha
Chang Il
CI
Jung
Tae Suk
TS
Park
Dong Choon
DC
Yeo
Seung Geun
SG
D008267:Acoustic Maculae / Q000294:innervation*; D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D002648:Child; D004292:Dominance, Cerebral / Q000502:physiology; D004576:Electromyography / Q000295:instrumentation*; D019054:Evoked Potentials, Motor / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009046:Motor Neurons / Q000502:physiology*; D009334:Neck Muscles / Q000294:innervation*; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D012016:Reference Values; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000295:instrumentation*; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D014724:Vestibular Function Tests / Q000295:instrumentation*; D014725:Vestibular Nerve / Q000502:physiology*; D014726:Vestibular Nuclei / Q000502:physiology*