Abstract

ARANDA-MORENO, Catalina  and  JAUREGUI -RENAUD, Kathrine. The subjective visual vertical in vestibular disease. Rev. invest. clín. [online]. 2005, vol.57, n.1, pp.22-27. ISSN 2564-8896.

Objective. To assess and compare the accuracy to perceive visual verticality, with and without trunk-head tilt in the frontal plane (30°), in patients with peripheral or central vestibular disease. Methods. Thirty eight patients accepted to participate, 23 with peripheral disease and 15 with central disease. We also evaluated 40 healthy subjects. Subjects were seated facing a screen with an anchored motorized bar (20 cm). They were asked to bring the line to vertical, using a joystick, 10 times while seated upright and 10 times while tilted 30° to each side. An average of the distance from true vertical was calculated to determine the tilt of the visual vertical on each posture. Results. Always, estimations made by healthy subjects were < 2° from true vertical. In patients, in upright posture the largest tilt of the visual vertical was observed in patients with peripheral disease and spontaneous nystagmus. However, in all patients the accuracy to estimate the true vertical decreased when they were evaluated with trunk-head tilt (p < 0.05). In this condition the sensitivity of the test increased from 34 to 85% and the efficacy from 68 to 93% (p < 0.05). Conclusion. Trunk-head tilt in the frontal plane decreases the accuracy of patients with vestibular disease to visually perceive verticality. This finding shows that head-trunk tilt can improve the sensibility and efficacy of this test to assess the vestibular function.

Keywords : Vestibular; Vertigo; Otoliths; Visual vertical; Balance.