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Clinical Utility of Ocular Vestibular-Evoked Myogenic Potentials (oVEMPs)

  • Neuro-Ophthalmology (A Kawasaki, Section Editor)
  • Published:
Current Neurology and Neuroscience Reports Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Over the last years, vestibular-evoked myogenic potentials (VEMPs) have been established as clinical tests of otolith function. Complementary to the cervical VEMPs, which assess mainly saccular function, ocular VEMPs (oVEMPs) test predominantly utricular otolith function. oVEMPs are elicited either with air-conducted (AC) sound or bone-conducted (BC) skull vibration and are recorded from beneath the eyes during up-gaze. They assess the vestibulo-ocular reflex and are a crossed excitatory response originating from the inferior oblique eye muscle. Enlarged oVEMPs have proven to be sensitive for screening of superior canal dehiscence, while absent oVEMPs indicate a loss of superior vestibular nerve otolith function, often seen in vestibular neuritis (VN) or vestibular Schwannoma.

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Conflict of Interest

Konrad P. Weber has received a grant from the Forschungskredit of the University of Zurich.

Sally M. Rosengren has received grants from the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia (NHMRC) and the Brain Foundation of Australia.

Human and Animal Rights and Informed Consent

This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurology, University Hospital Zurich, Frauenklinikstrasse 26, CH-8091, Zurich, Switzerland

    Konrad P. Weber

  2. Department of Ophthalmology, University Hospital Zurich, Frauenklinikstrasse 24, CH-8091, Zurich, Switzerland

    Konrad P. Weber

  3. Neurology Department, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Missenden Rd, Sydney, NSW, 2050, Australia

    Sally M. Rosengren

  4. Central Clinical School, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, 2006, Australia

    Sally M. Rosengren

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  1. Konrad P. Weber
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  2. Sally M. Rosengren
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Correspondence to Konrad P. Weber.

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This article is part of the Topical Collection on Neuro-Ophthalmology

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Weber, K.P., Rosengren, S.M. Clinical Utility of Ocular Vestibular-Evoked Myogenic Potentials (oVEMPs). Curr Neurol Neurosci Rep 15, 22 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11910-015-0548-y

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