Giacinto Asprella-Libonati1. 1. ENT Department, Unit of Audiology, Vestibology and Phoniatry, Madonna delle Grazie Hospital, 75100 Matera, Italy. Tel.: +39 0835 253 388; Fax: +39 0835 253 384; E-mail: asprella@tin.it.
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: To investigate the incidence of Lateral Semicircular Canal BPPV (LSC BPPV) with Pseudo-Spontaneous Nystagmus in patients preliminarily diagnosed for vestibular neuritis in the Emergency Department (ED). METHODS: Retrospective study of 273 patients with acute vertigo and persistent horizontal nystagmus in upright position (male 110, female 163, 14-93 years old) observed over four years. All the patients were checked for any nystagmus modification by performing the Head Pitch Test (HPT) in the upright position. RESULTS: The HPT modified the beating direction of the persistent horizontal nystagmus in 56 of the 273 examined patients. The positioning tests subsequently confirmed the diagnosis of LSC BPPV in all those 56 patients. There were 37 geotropic variants and 19 apogeotropic variants and all of them were successfully treated by performing liberatory manoeuvres in the course of the same session. CONCLUSION: Performing the HPT in the upright position helps to differentiate a direction fixed nystagmus from a direction changing one, and in so doing, to make the differential diagnosis between vestibular neuritis and LSC BPPV, achieving the goal of successfully treating LSC BPPV in the first session.
OBJECTIVE: To investigate the incidence of Lateral Semicircular Canal BPPV (LSC BPPV) with Pseudo-Spontaneous Nystagmus in patients preliminarily diagnosed for vestibular neuritis in the Emergency Department (ED). METHODS: Retrospective study of 273 patients with acute vertigo and persistent horizontal nystagmus in upright position (male 110, female 163, 14-93 years old) observed over four years. All the patients were checked for any nystagmus modification by performing the Head Pitch Test (HPT) in the upright position. RESULTS: The HPT modified the beating direction of the persistent horizontal nystagmus in 56 of the 273 examined patients. The positioning tests subsequently confirmed the diagnosis of LSC BPPV in all those 56 patients. There were 37 geotropic variants and 19 apogeotropic variants and all of them were successfully treated by performing liberatory manoeuvres in the course of the same session. CONCLUSION: Performing the HPT in the upright position helps to differentiate a direction fixed nystagmus from a direction changing one, and in so doing, to make the differential diagnosis between vestibular neuritis and LSC BPPV, achieving the goal of successfully treating LSC BPPV in the first session.
Authors: Salvatore Martellucci; Pasquale Malara; Andrea Castellucci; Rudi Pecci; Beatrice Giannoni; Vincenzo Marcelli; Alfonso Scarpa; Ettore Cassandro; Silvia Quaglieri; Marco Lucio Manfrin; Elisabetta Rebecchi; Enrico Armato; Francesco Comacchio; Marta Mion; Giuseppe Attanasio; Massimo Ralli; Antonio Greco; Marco de Vincentiis; Cecilia Botti; Luisa Savoldi; Luigi Califano; Angelo Ghidini; Giulio Pagliuca; Veronica Clemenzi; Andrea Stolfa; Andrea Gallo; Giacinto Asprella Libonati Journal: Front Neurol Date: 2020-11-19 Impact factor: 4.003