Abstract

CABRERA ABREU, I. et al. Findings in the auditory brainstem response of patients with peripheral vertigo. Enferm. glob. [online]. 2009, n.15. ISSN 1695-6141.

Most vertigo syndromes are benign processes that are resolved with or without treatment in a short period of time, but there is the possibility that the symptoms may represent an important neurologic disease. Specifically, periphery vertigos appear due to a lesion in the vestibular receptors (labyrinths) or in the statoacoustic nerve. Auditory Brainstem Response is among the most useful clinical tests to document the existence of a lesion of the statoacoustic nerve. In turn, it may offer information about the vestibular component. Thirty-seven inpatients or patients coming from the office of International Center for Neurological Restoration were sent to our service diagnosed with vertiginous syndrome of a peripheral cause. These patients were given ABR, following the established routine from the laboratory-procedure manual, previous the subjective evaluation of the hearing threshold. It was found that such study was positive in 78.38% of studied cases, and a greater percentage of anomalies were related to wave-amplitude (which suggests an axonal damage of the statoacoustic nerve); whereas parameters of absolute wave-latency and interpeak intervals practically did not show any variations. Our results confirmed the existence of functional anomalies in the statoacoustic nerve of studied patients with peripheral vertigo syndrome.

Keywords : Auditory Brainstem Response; Vertigo; Statoacoustic Nerve.

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