Inertial Measurement Unit-Based Romberg Test for Assessing Adults With Vestibular Hypofunction

Kuan-Chung Ting; Yu-Chieh Lin; Chia-Tai Chan; Tzong-Yang Tu; Chun-Che Shih; Kai-Chun Liu; Yu Tsao

doi:10.1109/JTEHM.2023.3334238

Inertial Measurement Unit-Based Romberg Test for Assessing Adults With Vestibular Hypofunction

IEEE J Transl Eng Health Med. 2023 Nov 17:12:245-255. doi: 10.1109/JTEHM.2023.3334238. eCollection 2024.

Authors

Kuan-Chung Ting^{1

2

3}, Yu-Chieh Lin⁴, Chia-Tai Chan⁴, Tzong-Yang Tu¹, Chun-Che Shih^{2

5

6}, Kai-Chun Liu⁷, Yu Tsao⁷

Affiliations

¹ Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck SurgeryTaipei Veterans General Hospital Taipei 11217 Taiwan.
² Institute of Clinical Medicine, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University Taipei 11221 Taiwan.
³ School of MedicineNational Yang Ming Chiao Tung University Taipei 11221 Taiwan.
⁴ Department of Biomedical EngineeringNational Yang Ming Chiao Tung University Taipei 11221 Taiwan.
⁵ Division of Cardiovascular SurgeryTaipei Municipal Wanfang Hospital Taipei 11608 Taiwan.
⁶ Taipei Heart Institute, Taipei Medical University Taipei 11013 Taiwan.
⁷ Research Center for Information Technology InnovationAcademia Sinica Taipei 11529 Taiwan.

Abstract

This work aims to explore the utility of wearable inertial measurement units (IMUs) for quantifying movement in Romberg tests and investigate the extent of movement in adults with vestibular hypofunction (VH). A cross-sectional study was conducted at an academic tertiary medical center between March 2021 and April 2022. Adults diagnosed with unilateral vestibular hypofunction (UVH) or bilateral vestibular hypofunction (BVH) were enrolled in the VH group. Healthy controls (HCs) were recruited from community or outpatient clinics. The IMU-based instrumented Romberg and tandem Romberg tests on the floor were applied to both groups. The primary outcomes were kinematic body metrics (maximum acceleration [ACC], mean ACC, root mean square [RMS] of ACC, and mean sway velocity [MV]) along the medio-lateral (ML), cranio-caudal (CC), and antero-posterior (AP) axes. A total of 31 VH participants (mean age, 33.48 [SD 7.68] years; 19 [61%] female) and 31 HCs (mean age, 30.65 [SD 5.89] years; 18 [58%] female) were recruited. During the eyes-closed portion of the Romberg test, VH participants demonstrated significantly higher maximum ACC and increased RMS of ACC in head movement, as well as higher maximum ACC in pelvic movement along the ML axis. In the same test condition, individuals with BVH exhibited notably higher maximum ACC and RMS of ACC along the ML axis in head and pelvic movements compared with HCs. Additionally, BVH participants exhibited markedly increased maximum ACC along the ML axis in head movement during the eyes-open portion of the tandem Romberg test. Conversely, no significant differences were found between UVH participants and HCs in the assessed parameters. The instrumented Romberg and tandem Romberg tests characterized the kinematic differences in head, pelvis, and ankle movement between VH and healthy adults. The findings suggest that these kinematic body metrics can be useful for screening BVH and can provide goals for vestibular rehabilitation.

Keywords: Romberg test; Vestibular hypofunction; inertial measurement units; tandem Romberg test; wearable sensor.

MeSH terms

Academic Medical Centers*
Acceleration
Adult
Ambulatory Care Facilities
Cross-Sectional Studies
Female
Head Movements*
Humans
Male

Grants and funding

This work was supported in part by the National Science and Technology Council of Taiwan under Grant 112-2221-E-075-010, Grant 111-2221-E-001-016-MY3, and Grant 112-2221-E-001-020-MY3; in part by the Academia Sinica under Grant AS-GC-111-M01; and in part by Taipei Veterans General Hospital under Grant V111B-023 and Grant V112B-011.