Test-retest Reliability of vestibular evoked myogenic potential components in air and bone conduction procedures in normal subjects

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the reliability of the vestibular evoked myogenic potential (VEMP) response in clinics where only a feedback method is available for monitoring background EMG.

forty healthy young subjects (mean age of 23/62 years old) participated in the investigation of the within-session reliability. They were retested again after 2 to 3 days for the between-session reliability. VEMPs were recorded in air and bone conduction procedures using 500 Hz tone bursts with durations of 4 and 7 milliseconds and use of feedback method for control of muscle contraction.

The intraclass correlation coefficient value for air conduction was found to have fair-to-good reliability and for bone conduction (4 millisecond) the correlation was found to be fair-to-good. For bone conduction (7 millisecond) the correlation was found to be poor-to-good. The latency of n23 was more reliable than the latency of p13. For AC procedure amplitudes were more reliable than the latencies but for BC procedure latencies were more reliable than amplitudes. Overall air conduction procedure was more reliable than bone conduction procedure.

Overall, VEMP response parameters were found to have fair to good test-retest reliability. The feedback method revealed that the results of this study are comparable to other data in the literature where different test conditions were applied. Clinicians should consider these findings when interpreting VEMP responses.