The diagnostic significance of the clinical methods for the investigation into the oculomotor reactions to dizziness

Abstract

The objective of the present study was to estimate the diagnostic significance of the physical vestibular tests designed to investigate the oculomotor reactions in order to determine the severity of disturbances in the vestibular analyzer during the primary examination of the patients presenting with dizziness symptoms. The results of the study suggest the desirability of using the Frenzel goggles for the detection of the presence of latent spontaneous nystagmus and the performance of additional testing. The study of the vestibular-ocular reflex should begin from the head turn test to be supplemented, in the case of the dubious result, by the dynamic visual acuity test. The smooth pursuit test, the visual saccade test, and the optic nystagmus test need to be performed on a full scale. The subjective visual vertical test should be carried out at the later stages of diagnostics when the detailed investigation of the vestibular function is conducted. The positional manoeuvers are the indispensable components of the examination of the patients presenting with pathological changes in the vestibular analyzer by virtue of their high diagnostic significance for the detection of benign paroxysmal positional dizziness.