Pilot Project on External Vestibular Prosthesis in Chronic Subjective Dizziness

Not Applicable

Completed

Brief Summary: Researchers are gathering information on the safety and effectiveness of a new device called the BalanceBelt.

Detailed Description: Ten consecutive subjects, ages 25-70 years, diagnosed with Chronic Subjective Dizziness (CDS) and ten healthy age and gender matched subjects will be asked to perform tests involving walking and balance while wearing the BalanceBelt. The BalanceBelt is a lightweight belt that will be worn under the clothes around the subjects waist and uses sensitive motion detectors and vibrates against the skin at four locations to provide information about posture and motion.

Recruitment & Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria

Subjects will be 25-70 years of age inclusive and pregnant women may participate.
Patients will have CSD as their primary diagnosis for the cause of their balance and dizziness complaints provided by the Behavioral Medicine Program for Dizziness, a division of the Department of Psychiatry & Psychology.
Normal volunteers will have a negative history of otologic & neurologic disorders and no history of dizziness and balance problems.
Normal volunteers will have normal findings on a screening office examination for peripheral and central vestibular system involvement (see methods for details of the examination) and screening for normal or symmetrical hearing loss of explainable origin.

Exclusion Criteria

Patients with positive indications from testing of peripheral and/or central vestibular system involvement that is felt to be influencing the symptoms reported beyond the CSD alone.
Patients with mobility restriction that would prevent participating in the tests or the intensive therapy trials.
Subjects with hearing impairment that interferes with oral communication.

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
Chronic Subjective Dizziness Syndrome Subjects	Balance Belt	Subjects diagnosed with Chronic Subjective Dizziness Syndrome (CDS) will wear the BalanceBelt while performing test involving walking and balance.
Healthy Subjects	Balance Belt	Age matched healthy subjects without complaints of balance or dizziness problems will wear the BalanceBelt while performing test involving walking and balance.

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Degrees of Sway	baseline	The Sensory Organization Test is a six condition standard evaluation of balance control performed on a dynamic platform that can record sway movement in the A/P dimension while the sensory inputs from proprioception and vision are varied though the platform and visual surround movements. Condition 1 - eyes open, visual locked, platform locked. Condition 2 - eyes closed, visual locked, platform locked. Condition 3 - eyes open, visual unlocked, platform locked. Condition 4 - eyes open, visual locked, platform unlocked. Condition 5 - eyes closed, visual locked, platform unlocked. Condition 6 - eyes open, visual unlocked, platform unlocked. All participants progress though the exam, starting with condition 1 and ending with condition 6. All conditions were completed two to three times depending on performance with the average of each condition reported.

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Visual Analog Scales Score	baseline	For the therapy portion of the study aim #2 Visual Analog Scales (VAS) related to the intensity of symptoms provoked by visual motion, head movements and walking in visually complex environments. The average Visual Analog Scale scores for the patient group pre and post therapy will be compared for any significant difference in the score (p\<0.05). The VAS ranges from 0-10, where 0 is no symptoms and 10 is the most intense symptoms experienced.