Background: Vestibular dysfunction has been long described in patients with migraine;
this relation has been addressed as vestibular migraine. The pathophysiology as well as the peripheral
or central localization of this deficit is unclear. Cervical vestibular evoked myogenic potential
(cVEMP) is a validated method to test saccular function and vestibulocollic pathway.
Objectives: The current work was designed to assess the characteristics of cVEMP response in
patients with vestibular migraine and compare them with the results of healthy controls, and to find
out if the cVEMP could be useful as a complementary tool for testing vestibular function in vestibular
migraine.
Methods: Twenty five patients with definite vestibular migraine were involved as a study group.
Twenty healthy volunteers of comparable age and sex were taken as a control group. The amplitude
and latency of cVEMP were measured. Electronystagmography (ENG) test battery including caloric
testing was done.
Results: Our study demonstrated significant reduction in cVEMP amplitudes, and more frequently
absent response in patients with vestibular migraine compared to healthy controls. There
was no correlation between cVEMP amplitudes and caloric testing. ENG tests showed peripheral
vestibular lesion in 36% of patients, central lesion in 16%, mixed lesion in 4%.
Conclusion: cVEMP is a useful complementary tool for testing vestibular function in vestibular
migraine. Reduced cVEMP amplitude or absent response were the most frequent features in
vestibular migraine. The saccule and or the sacculo-collic pathway are affected in vestibular
migraine, with more tendencies for peripheral vestibular dysfunction in our patient group.