Benign Recurrent Vertigo: Clinical Manifestations And Vestibular Function Test

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Benign recurrent vertigo has been defined as recurrent spells of vertigo lasting minutes to hours without cochlear and neurologic signs. The etiology is still unclear, but viral and vasospastic etiology as migraine equivalent has been suggested. We attempt to analyze the symptoms and vestibular function test of Benign recurrent vertigo that has clinically diagnosed. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We analyzed retrospectively the clinical characteristics and vestibular function test including ocular-motor test, rotation test and computerized dynamic posturography from 100 patients with a Benign recurrent vertigo diagnosis. RESULTS: Eight two percent of the patients were female, mean age was 52 years, and mean duration of prevalence was 47.3 months. In the characteristics of vertigo, 91% of patients have spinning sensation during attack. The vertigo attacks most commonly lasts several hours (57%), and frequency of attack is three to twelve time per year in 47%. A high incidence (40%) of headache was detected, but incidence of other associated symptoms including fluctuating hearing loss (3%), tinnitus (27%), aural fullness (9%) was relatively low. The incidence of spontaneous nystagmus and positional nystagmus was 18% and 10% each. Saccadic undershoot was observed in 21% of patients, but it was not associated with other ocular-motor test abnormalities. In rotation test, low gain, phase lead and asymmetry was observed in 18%, 3% and 9%, respectively. There were no abnormal findings in posturography. CONCLUSIONS: Although benign recurrent vertigo did not show any characteristic clinical findings or vestibular function test, it deserves to be considered for differential diagnosis of episodic vertigo.