AUTHOR=Xu Xin-Da , Chen Bin-Jun , Sun An-Rong , Zhang Qing , Cheng Ying , Ren Dong-Dong , Yu Jing , Luo Hui-Ping 

TITLE=Uneven Effects of Sleep Apnea on Semicircular Canals and Otolithic Organs

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Neurology

VOLUME=Volume 13 - 2022

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/neurology/articles/10.3389/fneur.2022.819721

DOI=10.3389/fneur.2022.819721

ISSN=1664-2295

ABSTRACT=OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to explore how obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) affects the function of each vestibular organ and to identify the correlations among them.
METHODS: A prospective study was conducted involving 32 healthy controls and 64 OSA patients. The objective detection methods of the utricle and saccule are vestibular-evoked myogenic potentials (VEMPs). A combination of the caloric test and video head impulse test (vHIT) was used to comprehensively evaluate the objective function of semicircular canals.
RESULTS: Elevated thresholds (p<0.001), decreased waveform amplitudes (p<0.001), prolonged first wave latencies (p<0.001) and shortened first interpeak latencies (p<0.001) were observed in both ocular VEMP (oVEMP) and cervical VEMP (cVEMP). A significant difference was found in the caloric test comparison (chi²=4.030, p=0.045) but not in the vHIT. The intergroup comparison of normal rates among the VEMPs, caloric test, and vHIT groups showed significantly different (p<0.001).
CONCLUSIONS: The impairment of vestibular function in OSA patients was uneven and biased. More attention should be given to vestibular dysfunction in the diagnosis and treatment of OSA.