Veterans with dizziness recruit compensatory saccades in each semicircular canal plane although VOR gain is normal

Background: Exposure to brain injury via blast or blunt mechanisms disrupts multiple sensorimotor systems simultaneously. Large numbers of US Gulf War era and Operation Iraqi/Enduring Freedom veterans with traumatic brain injury (TBI) are suffering the symptom of dizziness - presumed due to "Multi-Sensory Impairment", a clinical pattern of damage to the auditory, visual and vestibular sensorimotor systems.

Objective: To describe the oculomotor response to rapid head rotation in a population of veterans with dizziness. We also describe the reliability of using the video head impulse test (vHIT) in a veteran population.

Methods: We used the vHIT to evaluate the vestibular-ocular reflex (VOR) gain and presence of compensatory saccades (CS) in each semicircular canal of 81 veterans (31% TBI) with dizziness. Data was collected using the ICS Otometric™ vHIT. Data was processed using both the Otometric™ software and custom software written in MATLAB™. This data was evaluated through Kruskal-Wallis rank-sum test and analysis of regression.

Results: Veterans with dizziness recruit CS in all semicircular canal planes even though their VOR gain is normal. The vHIT is a reliable clinical test to quantify the metrics of the VOR and CS in veterans.

Conclusion: Veterans with dizziness symptoms use compensatory saccades in all planes of semicircular canal rotation, despite having normal peripheral VOR gain during rapid head rotation. The video head impulse test is a stable measure of vestibular slow phase and metrics of compensatory saccades in veterans with dizziness.