Reproducibility (test-retest) of vestibular evoked myogenic potential

INTRODUCTION: There is still no consensus in the literature as to the best acoustic stimulus for capturing vestibular evoked myogenic potential (VEMP). Low-frequency tone bursts are generally more effective than high-frequency, but recent studies still use clicks. Reproducibility is an important analytical parameter to observe the reliability of responses. OBJECTIVE: To determine the reproducibility of p13 and n23 latency and amplitude of the VEMP for stimuli with different tone-burst frequencies, and to define the best test frequency. METHODS: Cross-sectional cohort study. VEMP was captured in 156 ears, on the sternocleidomastoid muscle, using 100 tone-burst stimuli at frequencies of 250, 500, 1000, and 2000 Hz, and sound intensity of 95 dB nHL. Responses were replicated, that is, recorded three times on each side. RESULTS: No significant difference was observed for p13 and n23 latencies of the VEMP, captured at three moments with tone-burst stimuli at 250, 500, and 1000 Hz. Only the frequency of 2000 Hz showed a difference between captures of this potential (p < 0.001). p13 and n23 amplitude analysis was also similar in the test-retest for all frequencies analyzed. CONCLUSION: p13 and n23 latencies and amplitudes of VEMP for tone-burst stimuli at frequencies of 250, 500, and 1000 Hz are reproducible.