Comparison of cervical and ocular vestibular-evoked myogenic potential responses between tone burst versus chirp stimulation

Abstract

Purpose To compare the effectiveness of chirp and tone burst stimuli in oVEMP and cVEMP testing for healthy adults Methods This study was conducted in 56 healthy volunteers (112 ears). Ocular and cervical VEMP (oVEMP, cVEMP) tests were performed for each participant using tone burst and chirp stimuli. VEMP response rates, latency of each peak (p1-n1, n1-p1), peak to peak amplitude (p1-n1 amplitude and n1-p1 amplitude), and rectified amplitudes were measured and compared between these two different stimuli. Results VEMP response rates with chirp stimuli are higher than the tone burst stimuli for both cVEMP and oVEMP tests (The difference was statistically significant for oVEMP, p = 0.001). Chirp stimuli have higher p1n1 amplitude and rectified amplitude and shorter p1and n1 latency then tone burst stimuli for cVEMP (p = 0.015, p = 0.007, p < 0.001, p < 0.001, respectively). Chirp stimuli also have higher n1p1 amplitude and shorter n1and p1 latency then tone burst stimuli for oVEMP (p = 0.006, p < 0.001, p < 0.001, respectively). Conclusion The present findings show that the chirp stimulus triggers earlier VEMP responses with higher amplitudes than the tone burst stimulus during cVEMP and oVEMP testing. VEMP response rate with chirp stimulus is also higher than the tone burst. Therefore chirp stimulus can be used in VEMP testing as effectively as, if not more than, tone burst stimulus in clinical practice.