AUTHOR=Wiener-Vacher Sylvette R. , Campi Marta , Boizeau Priscilla , Thai-Van Hung 

TITLE=Cervical vestibular evoked myogenic potentials in healthy children: Normative values for bone and air conduction

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Neurology

VOLUME=14

YEAR=2023

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/neurology/articles/10.3389/fneur.2023.1157975

DOI=10.3389/fneur.2023.1157975

ISSN=1664-2295

ABSTRACT=<sec><title>Objectives</title><p>To characterize cervical vestibular evoked myogenic potentials (c-VEMPs) in bone conduction (BC) and air conduction (AC) in healthy children, to compare the responses to adults and to provide normative values according to age and sex.</p></sec><sec><title>Design</title><p>Observational study in a large cohort of healthy children (<italic>n</italic> = 118) and adults (<italic>n</italic> = 41). The c-VEMPs were normalized with the individual EMG traces, the amplitude ratios were modeled with the Royston-Wright method.</p></sec><sec><title>Results</title><p>In children, the amplitude ratios of AC and BC c-VEMP were correlated (<italic>r</italic> = 0.6, <italic>p</italic> &lt; 0.001) and their medians were not significantly different (<italic>p</italic> = 0.05). The amplitude ratio was higher in men than in women for AC (<italic>p</italic> = 0.04) and BC (<italic>p</italic> = 0.03). Children had significantly higher amplitude ratios than adults for AC (<italic>p</italic> = 0.01) and BC (<italic>p</italic> &lt; 0.001). Normative values for children are shown. Amplitude ratio is age-dependent for AC more than for BC. Confidence limits of interaural amplitude ratio asymmetries were less than 32%. Thresholds were not different between AC and BC (88 ± 5 and 86 ± 6 dB nHL, <italic>p</italic> = 0.99). Mean latencies for AC and BC were for P-wave 13.0 and 13.2 msec and for N-wave 19.3 and 19.4 msec.</p></sec><sec><title>Conclusion</title><p>The present study provides age- and sex-specific normative data for c-VEMP for children (6 months to 15 years of age) for AC and BC stimulation. Up to the age of 15 years, c-VEMP responses can be obtained equally well with both stimulation modes. Thus, BC represents a valid alternative for vestibular otolith testing, especially in case of air conduction disorders.</p></sec>