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

Sylvette R Wiener-Vacher; Marta Campi; Priscilla Boizeau; Hung Thai-Van

doi:10.3389/fneur.2023.1157975

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

Front Neurol. 2023 Apr 18:14:1157975. doi: 10.3389/fneur.2023.1157975. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Sylvette R Wiener-Vacher^{1

2}, Marta Campi¹, Priscilla Boizeau³, Hung Thai-Van^{1

4}

Affiliations

¹ Institut de l'Audition, Institut Pasteur, CERIAH, Paris, France.
² Service ORL, Centre d'Exploration Fonctionnelle de l'Equilibre chez l'Enfant (EFEE), Hôpital Universitaire Robert-Debré AP-HP, Paris, France.
³ Unité d'Epidémiologie Clinique, INSERM CIC1426, Hôpital Universitaire Robert-Debré AP-HP, Paris, France.
⁴ Hospices Civils de Lyon, Hôpital Edouard Herriot & Hôpital Femme Mère Enfant, Service d'Audiologie & Explorations Oto-Neurologiques, University of Lyon, Lyon, France.

Abstract

Objectives: 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.

Design: Observational study in a large cohort of healthy children (n = 118) and adults (n = 41). The c-VEMPs were normalized with the individual EMG traces, the amplitude ratios were modeled with the Royston-Wright method.

Results: In children, the amplitude ratios of AC and BC c-VEMP were correlated (r = 0.6, p < 0.001) and their medians were not significantly different (p = 0.05). The amplitude ratio was higher in men than in women for AC (p = 0.04) and BC (p = 0.03). Children had significantly higher amplitude ratios than adults for AC (p = 0.01) and BC (p < 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, p = 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.

Conclusion: 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.

Keywords: age; data modeling; otolith; pediatric; vestibular evaluation; vestibulospinal pathway.