Cervical and Masseter Vestibular Evoked Myogenic Potentials in Diabetes Mellitus Type 2.

PURPOSE

Diabetes affects the peripheral auditory and vestibular systems. Research suggests that both cervical vestibular evoked myogenic potentials (cVEMP) and ocular VEMP (oVEMP) are affected in individuals with diabetes. Masseter VEMP (mVEMP) is a new tool that assesses the vestibulomasseteric reflex pathways. The study aimed to characterize the cVEMP and mVEMP latency and amplitude parameters in diabetes mellitus type 2.

METHOD

The study included 21 participants with type 2 diabetes mellitus and 21 age- and gender-matched participants without diabetes aged 48-68 years. mVEMP and cVEMP were recorded using 500 Hz tone burst stimuli, presented at an intensity of 125 dB peSPL for both the groups.

RESULTS

The study suggests significantly prolonged P13 ( = .00) and P11 latencies ( = .00) in participants with diabetes ( for p11 = 15.81, for p13 = 15.39) compared to participants without diabetes ( for p11 = 13.12, for p13 = 14.19) for both cVEMP and mVEMP, respectively. No significant differences were observed in N23 ( = .4) and N21 latencies ( = .18) between the diabetes ( for N21 = 22.62, for N23 = 22.61) and nondiabetes groups ( for N21 = 22.21, for N23 = 22.40). Additionally, a significant reduction in cVEMP amplitude (P13-N23) was noted in the diabetes group ( for P13-N23 = 0.71, = .00) than the nondiabetes group ( = 1.44), while mVEMP amplitudes (P11-N21) remained similar across groups ( for P11-N21 for diabetes = 0.72, ( for P11-N21 for nondiabetes = 0.77, = .44). There were no significant correlations between the duration of diabetes and VEMP parameters, nor between cVEMP and mVEMP responses in either group.

CONCLUSIONS

The findings revealed notable differences in cVEMP and mVEMP findings in diabetes individuals. These results suggest that diabetes may lead to neural and labyrinthine impairments. The degree of vestibular impairment varies and affects different reflex pathways. Even though mVEMP has a similar saccular origin as cVEMP, the results between the two do not correlate with each other.