Diagnostic accuracy of bone-conducted cervical vestibular- evoked myogenic potentials in early infancy: a prospective cohort study.

BACKGROUND/

OBJECTIVES

Vestibular function assessment in infants is demanding. To develop age-appropriate methods for vestibular investigation early in infancy and in newborns we studied whether Bone-Conducted cervical Vestibular-Evoked Myogenic Potentials (BCcVEMP) is an accurate method. We also outlined BCcVEMP wave values in early infancy and compared them with values obtained at one year of age in the same cohort.

MATERIALS AND

METHODS

A total of 53 infants and newborn were included in the study (median age 6.4 weeks, IQR 8.29). Referrals were made to a university-affiliated audiology and neurotology department due to perinatal risk factors for inner ear impairment. The study was conducted between January 2021 and March 2023. We tested BCcVEMP in all participants within a few weeks after birth. The same group was tested again at approximately one year of age with the same protocol. We assessed each ear independently and recorded responses in the number of ears. We calculated and compared BCcVEMP wave latencies and amplitudes between the two test trials.

RESULTS

We identified vestibular responses in 72.6% of the tested ears (n = 77 ears) during the newborn and early infancy testing and in 94% (n = 92 ears) during the one-year follow up. There was a 75% chance of a response in the first test among the infants with a positive predictive value of 94.5%.Wave reproducibility (WR) was significantly higher at follow-up, while P13, N23 and P13-N23 were significantly shorter than at early in infancy testing; no statistically significant difference was observed in the P13-N13 scaled amplitude ratio between the two time points.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings support the use of BCcVEMP as an accurate method to confirm vestibular function early in infancy and it can be used for vestibular assessment beside the hearing screening; the test should only be repeated in those cases with a failed outcome.