Dizziness is fairly common in children, but it can be very hard to diagnose the cause. Any number of conditions can produce dizziness, and children are a special challenge since they often can’t describe what they’re feeling.
“One of the toughest things to figure out is, is it a problem with the vestibular system, or is it part of something else, a heart problem or an eye problem?” says Jacob Brodsky, MD, director of the Balance and Vestibular Program at Boston Children’s Hospital. “Then, the next challenging part is determining whether it is an inner ear problem or a central vestibular disorder — a problem with the brain.”
A definitive answer often requires a battery of tests that few providers outside Boston Children’s can perform in children, as they require sophisticated and expensive equipment. But with an ordinary bucket, an iPhone, an $18 app and some Velcro, Brodsky can quickly get a good indication of whether a child has a vestibular problem—and specifically an inner ear problem.
A poor man’s vestibular test
In the current state-of-the-art test, called the “subjective visual vertical,” or SVV, the patient is placed in a darkened room, shown a slightly off-kilter vertical line projected on a screen and asked to adjust the line with a remote until it appears precisely vertical.
“We can then measure how many degrees this differs from the true vertical,” explains Brodsky. This helps confirm that the dizziness is coming from a peripheral vestibular problem — vestibular loss in the inner ear rather than a brain problem.
An Australian clinician, Matthew Holmes, realized you could reproduce this test much more cheaply, with an iPhone app that displays the same vertical line.
Read the full post on Vector: An iPhone and a bucket help diagnose vestibular problems in dizzy children
The opinions expressed in this blog post are the author’s only and do not necessarily reflect those of MassDevice.com or its employees.
The post Diagnosing pediatric vestibular issues with an iPhone in a bucket appeared first on MassDevice.
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