Assessment of vestibulo-spinal reflex function in Multiple sclerosis patients using Computerized Dynamic Posturography

Abstract

Background: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a demyelinating autoimmune disease of the central nervous system, with fatigue and impaired upright posture are being important symptoms of the disease. Computerized dynamic posturography (CDP) is an assessment tool for objectively quantifying and distinguishing probable sensory, motor, and cerebral adaptive balance control deficits. Objective: This study aims at evaluation of findings of computerized dynamic posturography in multiple sclerosis patients with dizziness. Patients and Methods: This study included 70 participants, 40 who were MS patients and 30 healthy adult volunteers as controls. All participants were subjected to history taking, otological examination, basic audiological evaluation, bedside examination of the dizzy patient, and computerized dynamic posturography (CDP). Results: Of the 40 Multiple sclerosis patients 80% had abnormal Equilibrium (EQ) pattern and 72.5% had abnormal Sensory Analyses (SA) ratios. (p-values= 0.012 and 0.049 respectively) with the abnormalities were mainly vestibular dysfunction. Conclusion:Multiple sclerosis patients showed a smaller equilibrium scores in all conditions and composite scores, visual ratio, vestibular ratio and preference ratio than those of the control group and the abnormalities were mainly vestibular dysfunction. And we recommend the use of computerized dynamic posturography in the assessment of functional disability in MS patients.