title: Comparison of Different Electrode Configurations for the oVEMP With Bone-Conducted Vibration.
abstract: This study was performed to compare three electrode configurations for the ocular vestibular evoked myogenic potentials (oVEMPs)-"standard," "sternum," and "nose"-by making use of bone-conducted stimuli (at the level of Fz with a minishaker). In the second part, we compared the test-retest reliability of the standard and nose electrode configuration on the oVEMP parameters.
  
  
  
  This study had a prospective design. Fourteen healthy subjects participated in the first part (4 males, 10 females; average age = 23.4 (SD = 2.6) years; age range 19.9 to 28.3 years) and second part (3 males, 11 females; average age = 22.7 (SD = 2.4) years; age range 20.0 to 28.0 years) of the study. OVEMPs were recorded making use of a hand-held bone conduction vibrator (minishaker). Tone bursts of 500 Hz (rise/fall time = 2 msec; plateau time = 2 msec; repetition rate = 5.1 Hz) were applied at a constant stimulus intensity level of 140 dB FL.
  
  
  
  PART 1: The n10-p15 amplitude obtained with the standard electrode configuration (mean = 15.8 μV; SD = 6.3 μV) was significantly smaller than the amplitude measured with the nose (Z = -3.3; p = 0.001; mean = 35.0 μV; SD = 19.1 μV) and sternum (Z = -3.3; p = 0.001; mean = 27.1 μV; SD = 12.2 μV) electrode configuration. The p15 latency obtained with the nose electrode configuration (mean = 14.2 msec; SD = 0.54 msec) was significantly shorter than the p15 latency measured with the standard (Z = -3.08; p = 0.002) (mean = 14.9 msec; SD = 0.75 msec) and sternum (Z = -2.98; p = 0.003; mean = 15.4 msec; SD = 1.07 msec) electrode configuration. There were no differences between the n10 latencies of the three electrode configurations. The 95% prediction intervals (given by the mean ± 1.96 * SD) for the different interocular ratio values were [-41.2; 41.2], [-37.2; 37.2], and [-25.9; 25.9] for standard, sternum, and nose electrode configurations, respectively. PART 2: Intraclass correlation (ICC) values calculated for the oVEMP parameters obtained with the standard electrode configuration showed fair to good reliability for the parameters n10-p15 amplitude (ICC = 0.51), n10 (ICC = 0.52), and p15 (ICC = 0.60) latencies. The ICC values obtained for the parameters acquired with the nose electrode configuration demonstrated a poor reliability for the n10 latency (ICC = 0.37), a fair to good reliability for the p15 latency (ICC = 0.47) and an excellent reliability for the n10-p15 amplitude (ICC = 0.85).
  
  
  
  This study showed the possible benefits from alternative electrode configurations for measuring bone-conducted-evoked oVEMPs in comparison with the standard electrode configuration. The nose configuration seems promising, but further research is required to justify clinical use of this placement.
authors: 1ENT Department, Sint-Augustinus Hospital Antwerp, European Institute for ORL-HNS, Antwerp, Belgium; 2Antwerp University Research center for Equilibrium and Aerospace (AUREA), ENT Department, University Hospital Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium; 3Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium; and 4Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.
authors: Robby
authors: R
authors: Vanspauwen
authors: Floris L
authors: FL
authors: Wuyts
authors: Stefanie
authors: S
authors: Krijger
authors: Leen K
authors: LK
authors: Maes
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001844:Bone Conduction / Q000502:physiology*; D004566:Electrodes; D005260:Female; D064368:Healthy Volunteers; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011446:Prospective Studies; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D058585:Vestibular Evoked Myogenic Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D014732:Vibration; D055815:Young Adult