BACKGROUND

Subclinical cerebello-vestibular impairment has been described in migraine patients.

OBJECTIVES

Our aim was to investigate the presence of subclinical vestibulopathy in migraine patients using ocular vestibular evoked myogenic potentials (oVEMP).

PATIENTS AND METHODS

Forty-three patients suffering from migraine without aura who had no vestibular complaints and 29 healthy controls were included in the study. The responses were recorded from contralateral lower eyelid just above of the inferior oblique muscle during 120 dB click stimulation.

RESULTS

Eight migraine patients (18.6%) disclosed no response. Bilateral or unilateral response rates in the migraine group were 46.5% (n = 20) and 34.9% (n = 15) respectively. In controls, bilateral or unilateral responses could be obtained from 25 (86.7%), and 4 (13.2%) cases, respectively. In migraineurs group mean latencies of N1 and P1 were significantly longer, while N1-P1 amplitudes were found meaningfully lower.

CONCLUSION

These data demonstrate that using oVEMP subclinical vestibular dysfunction can be elicited in migraine patients without vestibular complaints.