Video head impulse test in subacute and chronic stroke survivors: new perspectives for implementation of assessment in rehabilitation

The Video Head Impulse Test (vHIT) is a safe and reliable assessment of peripheral vestibular function. Many studies tested its accuracy in clinical settings for differential diagnosis and quantification of the vestibulo-oculomotor reflex (VOR) in various disorders. However, the results of its application after lesions of the CNS are discordant and have never been studied in rehabilitation. This study aims to assess the VOR performance in a sample of stroke survivors.

This is a cross-sectional study on 36 subacute and chronic stroke survivors; only persons with first-ever stroke and able to walk independently, even with supervision, were included. We performed VOR assessments for each semicircular canal by vHIT and balance assessments by the Berg Balance Scale and the MiniBESTest scale.

Two hundred and sixteen semicircular canals were assessed using the Head Impulse paradigm (in both the vertical and horizontal planes), while 72 semicircular canals were assessed using the Suppressed Head Impulse paradigm (horizontal plane). There was a high prevalence of participants with dysfunctional canals, particularly for the left anterior and right posterior canals, which were each prevalent in more than one-third of our sample. Furthermore, 16 persons showed an isolated canal dysfunction. The mean VOR gain for the vertical canals had confidence intervals out of the normal values (0.74–0.91 right anterior; 0.74–0.82 right posterior; 0.73–0.87 left anterior).

Our findings suggest that peripheral vestibular function may be impaired in people with stroke; a systematic assessment in a rehabilitation setting could allow a more personalized and patient-centred approach.