抄録
Fukuda's Stepping Test (1959) for directional deviation has some merits. For one thing, it does not take up so large a space as the Gait Test. For another, the deviation of direction is ascert ained more easily by it than by other methods, e. g., various types of standing test (Romberg's, Mann's, or Flounier's).
Two more peculiarities of the Stepping Test have been found by the authors. One is its greater sensitivity to deviation phenomenon in comparison with that of the other tests. The other is that the tendency the results of this test have to deviate to the opposite side of CP (canal paresis) is more marked. These two peculiarities were examined.
Subjects of this study were sixty eight patients who had CP of 10% or more in calorigram. In addition to the Stepping Test, directional deviation was examined by Spontaneous Nystagmus, Standing Test, Vertical Writing Test, Gait Test and Positional Nystagmus with respect to all subjects.
The results show that the discovery rate of abnormal deviation is the highest (66%) with the Stepping Test and that more than half of the subjects examined by this test have shown deviations to the opposite side of CP. The reason why its discovery rate was the highest can be explained by the fact that in the Stepping Test deviation is repeated f if ty times. Such an accumulation of deviations by repetition occurs only in the Stepping Test.
The reason why one group of subjects showed the deviation to the CP side while the other group the one to the opposite side may be found in two factors: that is,(1) the difference in the degree of CP, and (2) the course or the length of diseases.
No interrelation between the degree of CP and the direction of deviation was discovered. As for the course of disease, the cases which showed the deviation to the CP side generally had courses longer than six months, while those showing the deviation to the opposite side had durations less than six months. And these results proved to be statistically significant (p<0.05). The tendency to deviate to the opposite side of CP in the initial stage of diseases may be ascribed to the circumstance that the diseased labyrinth is still irritable within six months from the inception of the disease.
