Equilibriometry
Equilibriometry is the method of measuring examination of human balance regulation .
At the borders between ear, nose and throat medicine , ophthalmology , neurology and other subjects, neurootology deals with the investigation of essential head senses. The sense of balance is of central importance. For this realization, the Nobel Prize went to Róbert Bárány as early as 1914 . In 1972, Claus-Frenz Claussen and Juan Manuel Tato put together a series of test methods for testing equilibrium function under the heading “Equilibriometry”. These have their physiological basis partly in the stimulation of vestibular receptors and partly in the stimulation of visual and proprioceptive afferents .
Equilibriometry uses defined stimulus methods with objective and quantitative reaction recording and evaluation. Since the subjective feeling of dizziness and nausea plays a special role for the patient, this is queried in a grid with the help of the systematic neurootological anamnesis sheet (NODEC or NOASC I) and thus made available for quick comparison during follow-up examinations.
The human equilibrium function is formed by a so-called spatial concept with information from the equilibrium tetrad, namely the eye, vestibularis, cochlea and propriocept, in the human brain stem . The balance regulation is supplemented by cerebellar and cortical pattern processing and memory contents.
Impairment of the balance function can arise in the most varied of locations of the receptors mentioned, as well as within the central nervous system . For the diagnostic search for the location of the lesion , as well as for the type of disorder, various head sensory trajectories are used, which are measured objectively and quantitatively. The classic objective and quantitative equilibriometric methods are those of sensorimotor eye movement control using electronystagmography or those of motor head-body movement control using cranio-corpo-graphy and the like. a. m. Neurootologists use the butterfly calorigram for the synoptic evaluation of the Bárány calorization experiment. For the standing and stepping test analysis, they use the radar image-like cranio-corpo-grams. The cortical reaction evaluation using “ Brain Electrical Activity Mapping ” (BEAM) and vestibular evoked brain potentials (VbEP) has been added.
All the processes mentioned are used in a networked manner. They are not only used for diagnostics, but also to control modern differential therapy for dizziness and nausea.
Using the neurootological network technology of a brain sensory path analysis, modern neurootology has succeeded in developing a successful, non-invasive, neurootometric functional diagnosis; Destructive examination procedures in the highly sensitive organs of the ear, eye and brain are usually forbidden. The procedure is similar to the detection of errors in modern computer networks, which is why it is also called network analysis.
