Role of videonystagmography and cervical vestibular evoked myogenic potentials in the diagnosis of vestibular migraine

Abstract

Background and objective: Vestibular migraine is widely accepted as a unique disease, although its pathophysiology remains uncertain. When the patient is asymptomatic, vestibular migraine is often challenging to diagnose as its many symptoms overlap with other conditions. This study aimed to assess the role of videonystagmography and cervical vestibular evoked myogenic potentials tests in diagnosing vestibular migraine. Methods: This study is a descriptive cross-sectional study conducted on 30 patients clinically diagnosed with vestibular migraine in the Audiology Center in Sulaimani City. The study duration was from December 1st, 2018, to June 30th, 2019. The author interpreted magnetic resonance imaging, videonystagmography, and cervical vestibular evoked myogenic potential results. Results: The patients' mean age was 34.9 years with a high predominance of the female gender. Vertigo was the main complaint of the patients (73.4%) with the recurrent course. A family history of migraine was present in 83.3% of the patients. Only two (6.7%) patients had abnormal findings on the brain magnetic resonance imaging. Videonystagmography examination showed that 40% of the patients had abnormal findings; 20% were abnormal on the left, 16.7% were abnormal on the right, and 3.3% were bilaterally abnormal. The cervical vestibular evoked myogenic potentials test was abnormal for 63.3% of the patients; 43.3% abnormality was on the left side, and 20% was on the right side. Conclusion: The cervical vestibular evoked myogenic potentials and videonystagmography tests are helpful in the diagnosis of vestibular migraine. Keywords: Vestibular migraine; Video nystagmography; Cervical vestibular-evoked myogenic potentials.