The impact of stimulation rates in vestibular evoked myogenic potential testing

Vestibular evoked myogenic potentials (VEMP) have been used in complementary otoneurological assessment, but the use of VEMP in clinical settings is limited. VEMPs can be used to assess vestibular function, particularly of the saccule, the inferior vestibular nerve, and/or the vestibular nucleus.ObjectiveTo verify the highest possible - and reliable - stimulation rate to obtain VEMPs.MethodThe VEMPs of 18 subjects were acquired using stimulation rates ranging between 5.1 and 40.8 stimuli per second. Study design: cross-sectional contemporary cohort study.ResultsLatencies were kept unaltered and amplitudes were progressively reduced as stimulation rates were increased. However, ANOVA and the Kruskal-Wallis test failed to find statistically significant differences between the tested parameters. The study further indicated that when stimulation rates of 5.1 and 10.2 stimuli per second were compared, no statistically significant differences were observed in latency.ConclusionThe highest reliable stimulation rate observed in the group of young adults with normal hearing included in this study was 10.2 stimuli per second.