Test-retest reliability of open-loop bithermal caloric irrigation responses from healthy young adults.

OBJECTIVE

To determine normal caloric responses and test-retest correlations of caloric responses in a group of otologically normal persons using an open-loop caloric irrigation system.

STUDY DESIGN

An open-loop bithermal caloric irrigator was used to obtain maximum slow component speed caloric responses of healthy young persons with a repeat caloric test occurring- 1 week later.

SETTING

The caloric examination took place in a university speech and hearing clinic.

SUBJECTS

Twenty healthy young adults (10 men and 10 women, ranging in age from 18 to 33 years) who reported no history of dizziness or hearing loss were recruited at a university. They had thresholds of 25 dB HL or better for frequencies 250 of 8000 Hz and had passed an examination performed by an otologist.

RESULTS

The mean unilateral weakness (UW) response was 1.73% with a standard deviation of 12.1%. Test retest correlations were 0.82 for UW and 0.80 to 0.90 for individual ear responses.

CONCLUSIONS

The results indicate that a minimum of a 25% UW should be present when identifying a significant UW. Also the test-retest correlations were considerably higher using an open-loop irrigator than those obtained using a closed-loop irrigation system in a previously reported study.