Vestibular myogenic potentials of athletes for the Deaf Olympic Games with congenital profound hearing loss

Abstract

Conclusions: Our study revealed that VEMPs in responses to clicks and 500 Hz STB were abnormal in 25% of athletes with congenital profound sensorineural hearing loss for the Deaf Olympic Games. These results confirm that a part of deaf athletes with congenital vestibular failure is well compensated for higher level sport activities. Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate the appearance rate of VEMP, vestibular failure and its compensation in Japanese deaf athletes by the VEMP test, caloric test and balance test. Methods: Sixteen subjects among the Deaf Olympic Games athletes of Japan volunteered to participate in this study. All the subjects have congenital profound sensorineural hearing loss. Results: In the VEMP test, 24 ears (75%) showed normal click-evoked responses, 5 ears (16%) showed decreased click-evoked responses, 3 ears (9%) showed no click-evoked responses, 28 ears (87.5%) showed normal 500 Hz short tone burst (STB)-evoked responses and 4 ears (12.5%) showed decreased responses. In the ice-water caloric test, 11 subjects (69%) showed normal responses bilaterally, 3 subjects showed bilateral responses with asymmetrical responses and 2 subjects (12%) showed no response bilaterally. All the subjects showed normal balance test results.

Keywords::

• Click
• 500 Hz short tone burst (STB)
• vestibular origin
• caloric test
• balance test
• vestibular dysfunction
• vestibular compensation
• deaf athletes
• saccule function

Acknowledgment

This work was supported by a Grant for Research on Sensory and Communicative Disorders (H18-kankakuki-general-003) from the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, and by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Priority Areas 18659498 and (A)(2)-19209052 from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan. The authors thank Ms Kayoko Sekiguchi for her secretarial work.

Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.