Fig 1.
Sound localization test set-up.
Seven Broadband Fostex 6301 loudspeakers at intervals of 30°, located in a frontal horizontal semicircle at the subject’s head level.
Table 1.
Detailed information on falls in the 69 patients at the Antwerp University Hospital (UZA).
Thirty of these BV patients had experienced falls in the preceding year.
Table 2.
Results of caloric, rotatory chair and vHIT testing.
Fig 2.
Saccular function assessed by the cervical VEMP.
Fig 3.
Overall vestibular function, defined as the number of impaired vestibular tests.
There was not a statistically significant (p = 0.054) lower vestibular function in the non-faller group. Included vestibular tests were video head impulse test of all canals (impaired if gain ≤ 0.6), rotatory chair test (impaired if gain ≤ 0.1), calorics in each ear (impaired if sum max. SPV ≤ 6°/s) and cVEMP (impaired if absent response). A number of 12 impaired vestibular tests thus represents the least residual vestibular function.
Fig 4.
Sound localization test results in best-aided situation.
The root mean square localization error is a measurement of patient’s accuracy of sound localization: the higher, the less accurate sound localization. Patients who did not fall in the last year did not have significant better sound localization test results.
Table 3.
Patient and disease characteristics.
Fig 5.
Distribution of etiologies in fallers-group and non-fallers group.
‘Other’ includes Menière’s disease, headtrauma, metabolic, auto-immune, neoplasma and other genetic disorders besides DNFA9 disease.
Table 4.
Comparison of the symptom questionnaires between fallers and non-fallers.