title: Wet air as an alternative to traditional water irrigation during caloric vestibular testing.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate whether caloric vestibular testing by wet air (WAI) is better than by dry air (DAI) in comparison to the gold standard using water (WAT).
  
  
  METHODS
  Prospective study, comparison with reference standard.
  
  
  METHODS
  Fifty volunteers with normal ear and balance function were enrolled in a prospective study. After side-specific warm and cold DAI, WAI, and WAT experimental nystagmuses were recorded using video-oculography. Peak slow nystagmus phase velocity (SPV) data at test culmination and the subjective tolerance of the methods were analyzed by visual analog scale.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The three methods differed significantly with respect to warm versus cold stimulation and stimulus side, with one exception. In the case of cold stimulation on the left side, SPV values did not differ between DAI and WAI. The intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) of WAT versus WAI were indicative of a medium to high agreement with the SPV data for all four individual irrigations. The ICCs of the WAT/DAI comparison were usually smaller. Generally, smaller individual differences were shown in Bland-Altman plots comparing WAI and WAT than plots comparing DAI and WAT. WAI had better subjective tolerability than WAT.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  WAI is an alternative caloric test method for anxious subjects oversensitive to WAT and probably for patients with suspected pathological ear canal and tympanic membrane findings.
authors.affiliation: Department of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, Friedrich-Schiller-University, Jena, Germany. hilmar.gudziol@med.uni-jena.de
authors.forename: Hilmar
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Gudziol
authors.forename: Carolin
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Koch
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Bitter
authors.forename: Orlando
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Guntinas-Lichius
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000388:Air; D002150:Caloric Tests / Q000379:methods*; D004424:Ear Canal / Q000503:physiopathology*; D004584:Electronystagmography; D005133:Eye Movements / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011446:Prospective Studies; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D007507:Therapeutic Irrigation / Q000379:methods*; D015837:Vestibular Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology; D014867:Water; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D014867:Water