The Vestibulospinal Reflex in Vitiligo Patients

Medhat, Mariam Magdy; Dabbous, Abeir Osman; El Mesidy, Marwa Salah Edin

doi:10.21608/ejentas.2023.175178.1578

The Vestibulospinal Reflex in Vitiligo Patients

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

¹ ENT department, Faculty of Medicine, Cairo university, Cairo, Egypt

² Audio-Vestibular Unit, Department of Otolaryngology, Kasr-Al-Ainy Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University, Egypt

³ Dermatology department, Faculty of Medicine, Cairo university, Egypt.

10.21608/ejentas.2023.175178.1578

Abstract

Background: The otic melanocytes are located in the stria vascularis, the modiolus of the cochlea, the semi-circular ducts, and the vestibular organs, which are structures involved in vestibular and cochlear function, could be lost in vitiligo.The aim of this study was to assess the saculo-colic and vestibulospinal reflexes in patients with different severity and activity of vitiligo.Patients and Methods: This study included 50 adult vitiligo patients and 25 healthy adults as controls. They were subjected to cervical vestibular evoked myogenic potentials (cVEMP) and sensory organization test (SOT) of the computerized dynamic posturography (CDP).Results: There was a statistically significant difference between the cases and controls regarding latency and amplitude of the VEMP in the right ear and N23 latency and amplitude in the left ear and interaural amplitude difference ratio (IAADR). Although there was no statistically significant difference between the cases and controls regarding CDP parameters, sensory analyses ratios or the composite score, individual analyses of data showed abnormal findings in SOT conditions and the sensory analysis of the patients. There was no statistically significant correlation between either age of patients, disease duration, VASI, VIDA and both VEMP and CDP parameters.Conclusion: Vitiligo can cause vestibular dysfunction anywhere in the vestibulospinal reflex pathway, and the vestibular dysfunction is not related to the severity of vitiligo or disease duration or patient’s age. We recommend using both cVEMP and SOT test for early detection of vestibulospinal reflex affection in vitiligo patients.

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