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Alcohol and the vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR)

I was drawn to this paper initially for slightly unscientific reasons but in fact it proved a worthwhile read. It describes the effect of alcohol consumption on the VOR of eight healthy subjects as measured using video head impulse testing...

Vestibular screening in occupational medicine

Occupational vestibular disorders carry a high medico legal and economic burden. The occupational medicine physician must rely on rapid, non-invasive, economical and reproducible screening tests. This article compares the simplified caloric test of Veits (CTV) with the skull vibration-induced nystagmus...

EBM Stats Calc: there’s a stat for that

Quantifying the value of a specific test or intervention for a patient is no easy feat. Even when the value of a given test or intervention has been established, there may be additional case-specific factors to consider that are not...

What blood tests should be requested to investigate vocal cord paralysis?

Patients who are discovered to have a vocal cord palsy with no obvious cause on history or examination routinely undergo investigations to exclude an underlying pathology. Cross-sectional imaging of the relevant recurrent laryngeal nerve is required, but considerable variability has...

Measurement of HINTS in peripheral vestibulopathy

Dizziness; Head impulse test; Nystagmus; Skew deviation; Vertigo.

Objective testing for Eustachian tube dysfunction

Eustachian tube dysfunction (ETD) is typically diagnosed based on subjective symptoms and examination leading to wide variation in its diagnosis and management. The search for an objective test has looked at ways of measuring the passage of air through the...

Rapid Interpretation of Balance Function Tests

I read the title with some concern as I would prefer my test interpretation to be ‘accurate’ rather than ‘rapid’, nevertheless the content of the book delivers what one would anticipate is intended, which is an easy to read outline...