Clinical Manifestation and Prognosis of Vestibular Migraine According to the Vestibular Function Test Results

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: According to previous reports, patients with vestibular migraine (VM) display variable results from vestibular function tests (VFT): central, peripheral, or normal. The aim of this study was to classify the VM patients into the three groups according to interictal VFT findings (central, peripheral or normal) and to clarify the relationship between VFT results and the clinical manifestations and prognosis in each group. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: We reviewed the medical records of 81 patients diagnosed as VM using the criteria of Neuhauser, et al. between December 2004 and June 2009. Patients were divided into three groups according to the results of VFT. We compared the clinical manifestations and prognosis between groups. Characteristics including dizziness, the nature of headache, associated otologic symptoms, hearing threshold, duration of illness, and recovery time were analyzed. RESULTS: The number of patients with central, peripheral vestibular dysfunction and normal finding in VFT were 15, 28, and 38 respectively. There were no significant differences in the nature of headache, associated otologic symptoms, hearing threshold, duration of illness, and recovery time. A small difference was observed in the mean age and characteristics of dizziness, but these were not significant. CONCLUSIONS: In patients with VM, classification according to the type of vestibular dysfunction was not helpful in the prediction of prognosis and clinical manifestations.