Hearing Loss, Vestibular Loss and Cognitive Performance

Antwerp University Hospital (UZA)

Status: Unknown

Conditions: Vestibular Disorder

Treatments: Behavioral: RBANS-H, virtual Morris Water Maze

Study type: Observational

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT03690817

16/42/426

Details and patient eligibility

About

Hearing loss is an established independent risk factor for dementia. Likewise, recent research demonstrated cognitive deficits in subjects with vestibular loss. However, in these studies data have not been adjusted for the hearing status of the enrolled study subjects. As hearing loss prevalence is high in patients with vestibular loss, this could be a major confounder. Therefore, in this study the investigators investigate cognition in patients with bilateral vestibulopathy with and without hearing loss. The investigators adjust data for the hearing status of the patients to explore the link between hearing loss, vestibular loss and cognition.

Enrollment: 70 estimated patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion and exclusion criteria

Inclusion criteria for BVP patients were:

1. Bilaterally reduced vestibular function, as defined by the Bárány Criteria for BVP (Michael Strupp 2017):

   • horizontal angular VOR gain < 0.6 measured by the vHIT, and/or
   • reduced caloric response (sum of bithermal, 30° and 44°, max. peak slow phase velocity (SPV) on each side < 6°/sec), and/or
   • reduced horizontal angular VOR gain < 0.1 upon sinusoidal stimulation on a rotatory chair. At our clinic rotatory chair tests are performed using sinusoidal rotation (0.05 Hertz) with a peak velocity of 60°/sec (Van der Stappen A 2000).

2. Disease duration of BVP > 6 months.

Healthy controls (HC). Only subjects with no history of vertigo, scores <5 on the Dizziness Handicap Inventory (DHI) and normal hearing thresholds at 0.25 - 8 kHz, based on age and sex (defined by the BS 6951:1988, EN 27029:1991 and ISO 7029-1984 standards), were enrolled in the study.

For both BVP patients and HC the following additional inclusion criteria were applied: 1) Age ≥ 18 years; 2) Fluency in Dutch; 3) No history of neurological diseases (e.g. dementia, Parkinson's disease, cerebrovascular accident, etc.); 4) Absence of clinical signs indicating dementia or mild cognitive impairment.

Trial design

70 participants in 2 patient groups

Bilateral vestibulopathy

Description:

Patients with bilateral vestibulopathy, according to the Barany Criteria (2017, Strupp).

Treatment:

Behavioral: RBANS-H, virtual Morris Water Maze

Healthy controls

Description:

Subjects without vestibular or neurological diseases (DHI\<5), and with normal hearing thresholds according to their age.

Treatment:

Behavioral: RBANS-H, virtual Morris Water Maze