Abstract
Finger plethysmography and R-R interval measurement on ECG were performed on patients with peripheral vertigo to assess autonomic nervous function. Involved in this study were 175 persons who were seen at the Jikei University Hospital and its Kashiwa Branch Hospital with the presenting symptom of vertigo, of whom 102 had both tests, 73 had the ECG test only and 8 Meniere's disease patinets underwent the ECG test before and after endolymphatic sac operation (Portman's method).
No statistically significant difference was observed between normal persons and patients with peripheral vertigo in the coefficient of variation calculated for 100 plethysmographic waves (CVPTG). In respect to the value of the coefficiet of variation of R-R interval on ECG for 100 cardiac cycles (CV
R-R) significant differences from normal were noted for Meniere's disease (p<0.01), vestibular disorder (p<0.05), vertigo of autonomic nervous origin (p<0.05) and pshycological vertigo (p<0.01); CV values found were high only for pshycological vertigo and low for any other varieties. CVR-R values for Meniere's disease patients undergoing endolymphatic sac operation showed an upward tendency toward approaching the normal postoperatively with a significant difference noted between before and 6 months after operation (p<0.01).
The CVR-R test has the advantages of easy to perform and permitting simultaneous assessment of the functional integrity of the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems, while the usefulness of finger pleth smography for this particular purpose remains to be verified by further studies.
