Pedalini Maria Elisabete Bovino, Cruz Oswaldo Laércio Mendonça, Bittar Roseli Saraiva Moreira, Lorenzi Maria Cecília, Grasel Signe Schuster
ENT, Hospital das Clinicas, Medical School University, Brazil.
Acta Otolaryngol. 2009 Sep;129(9):962-5. doi: 10.1080/00016480802468930.
Elderly subjects without vestibular dysfunction had an overall worse performance as compared with the group of normal adults, confirming that age has a negative impact on balance. The group of elderly subjects with vestibular dysfunction had more important balance alterations than those without, confirming that vestibular dysfunction has a major impact on balance control in the elderly. The visual and vestibular systems presented more important functional changes with ageing than the somatosensory system.
The main sensory input comes from the visual, vestibular and somatosensory systems; all of them may present changes due to ageing. This study aimed to investigate the performance of vestibular, visual and somatosensory systems in aged subjects with or without vestibular dysfunction, as compared to normal adults.
Dynamic posturography was used in 60 elderly subjects without vestibular dysfunction (Gaa), 60 with vestibular dysfunction (Gas) and 58 normal adults (Gn).
For condition 1 and 2 Gn performed significantly better than Gaa and Gas, with no difference between the latter. In conditions 4, 5 and 6 the performance of Gn was statistically superior to that of Gaa, which in turn, was better than that of Gas. The somatosensory responses showed no significant differences between the three groups. The performance of visual and vestibular systems showed progressive dysfunction: Gn did better than than Gaa, and Gaa did better than Gas.
与正常成年人组相比，无前庭功能障碍的老年受试者总体表现更差，这证实了年龄对平衡有负面影响。有前庭功能障碍的老年受试者组比无前庭功能障碍的组有更明显的平衡改变，这证实了前庭功能障碍对老年人的平衡控制有重大影响。视觉和前庭系统随着年龄增长呈现出比体感系统更重要的功能变化。
主要的感觉输入来自视觉、前庭和体感系统；由于衰老，所有这些系统都可能出现变化。本研究旨在调查与正常成年人相比，有或无前庭功能障碍的老年受试者的前庭、视觉和体感系统的表现。
对60名无前庭功能障碍的老年受试者（Gaa组）、60名有前庭功能障碍的老年受试者（Gas组）和58名正常成年人（Gn组）进行动态姿势描记法测试。
在条件1和条件2下，Gn组的表现明显优于Gaa组和Gas组，后两组之间无差异。在条件4、条件5和条件6下，Gn组的表现在统计学上优于Gaa组，而Gaa组又优于Gas组。三组之间的体感反应无显著差异。视觉和前庭系统的表现显示出渐进性功能障碍：Gn组优于Gaa组，Gaa组优于Gas组。
