Acute vestibular syndrome : Clinical examination outperforms MRI in the detection of central lesions

A significant number of patients who seek medical treatment in an emergency department because of vertigo or dizziness, suffer from acute vestibular syndrome. This is characterized by sustained vertigo, horizontal or horizontal rotatory jerk nystagmus, and unsteady stance and gait. In the acute situation it is crucial to differentiate patients with a peripheral vestibular disorder from those with a central disease. A number of recent studies have shown that a structured clinical examination enables a reliable differential diagnosis of central or peripheral disorders. Such an examination includes the head impulse test, an alternating cover test to detect a skew deviation of the eyes, and observation of nystagmus in different positions of gaze and using Frenzel goggles. This examination is more sensitive for the detection of brainstem stroke than magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), at least within 48 h after symptom onset. As these facts are still little known, in practice there is an overuse of cost-intensive imaging with computed tomography and MRI, and a number of patient brainstem strokes in the vertebrobasilar circulation may be missed. This paper describes the relevant studies on this topic.