Vestibular Evoked Myogenic Potentials of Asymptomatic Covid-19 PCR-Positive Cases

Background: World Health Organization (WHO) officially announced the COVID-19 epidemic as a pandemic. Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is an infectious disease caused by a newly discovered coronavirus. Little direct evidence suggests a viral cause for labyrinthitis; however, a wealth of epidemiologic evidence implicates several viruses as potentially causing inflammation of the labyrinth. Viral labyrinthitis is often preceded by an upper respiratory tract infection and occurs in epidemics. Aims/Objectives: This study compared latencies of vestibular evoked myogenic potentials (VEMPs) between asymptomatic COVID-19 PCR-positive cases and normal non-infected subjects. Material & methods: Twenty cases who were confirmed positive for COVID-19 and had none of the known symptoms for this viral infection formed the test group for 2 full weeks. Their age ranged between 20-50 years to avoid any age-related hearing affection. Patients who had definite symptoms of COVID-19 infection as well as those who had a history of hearing loss or a history of any known cause of hearing loss were excluded from the examined sample. VEMPs latencies were measured for all participants. Results: Deterioration of saccular hair cell functions was detected by the significantly increased latency of the VEMPs compared to controls. Conclusions and significance: COVID-19 infection could have drastic effects on vestibular hair cell functions despite being asymptomatic. COVID-19 patients should be followed up to detect any complaints regarding their vestibular performance. The mechanism of these effects requires further research.