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BACKGROUND: Posturography power spectra (PS) implementation has been proven to discriminate between sensory inputs detriment of vestibular and proprioceptive origin. OBJECTIVE: To deepen the role of posturography testing in the diagnostic route of dizzy conditions, by comparing two groups of patients –93 affected by cervicogenic dizziness (CGD) and 72 by unilateral vestibular hypofunction (UVH) –with a group of 98 age- and gender-matched healthy subjects, serving as control group (CON). METHODS: All participants underwent otoneurological testing including video head impulse test (vHIT) and posturography testing with PS analysis. They also filled in Dizziness Handicap Inventory (DHI), Tampa Scale for Kinesiophobia and Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale questionnaires. RESULTS: UVH and CGD patients were found to have significant increase in vestibular- and proprioceptive-related PS values when compared with CON. Receiver operating characteristic curves found PS values to reliably discriminate both groups from CON. Positive and negative correlations were respectively found between vestibular-/proprioceptive-related PS domain and DHI in both groups and between PS and vHIT scores in UVH patients. CONCLUSIONS: PS analysis demonstrated to be useful in differentiating CGD and UVH patients each other and when compared to CON, to objectively represent perceived symptoms filled along the DHI scale and to corroborate the rate of vestibular deficit in UVH patients.

Multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS) is a common clinical diagnosis in western populations and its symptoms are thought to be mainly related to chemical compounds exposure. Although MCS subjects refer to complain from many central nervous system symptoms, including dizziness, no study to now deepened vestibular detriment nor to what extent such an impairment could worsen MCS. Thus, the purpose of present study was to objectively highlight those clinical/subclinical aspects of vestibular impairment that could be related to MCS symptoms cohorts. A principal component analysis within a wide battery of otoneurological test scores was employed in 18 right-handed MCS patients and 20 sex- and age-matched healthy individuals. A deranged dimensionality in near-optimal re-weighting within otoneurological variables was found in MCS as compared with healthy subjects. These data seem to support the idea that MCS physiopathological underpinnings could lead to a peripheral and higher vestibular decay that could be addressed as a further aspect to better follow MCS patients up along natural history of disease in clinical practice.