Balance Disorders

To pinpoint the cause of your dizziness, Duke’s balance lab uses sophisticated diagnostic tests, including computerized technology that's only available at a handful of centers nationwide. This comprehensive assessment of the balance system gives precise information about how your brain is processing signals from your inner ear. The results provide an accurate diagnosis and also guide decisions about the best treatment for you. Audiologists with extensive training in balance problems conduct balance function testing and analyze the findings.

Measures how well your eyes and inner ears work together. You will sit in a dark room watching various light patterns. At times, the chair rotates while you look straight ahead and chat with the audiologist.

Checks for damage to the ears' vestibular nerves. The audiologist makes recordings from the muscles in your neck and/or eyes while you lie back in an exam chair and listen to sound through headphones.

A group of tests that measure eye movements as you look at different light patterns and check for signs of balance system dysfunction. VNG testing includes the circulation of warm or cool water through your ear canal. During the exam, you’ll be asked a series of simple questions while the audiologist records eye movements stimulated by the temperature change.

The Video Head Impulse Test (vHIT) measures how the eyes move in response to rapid head movements. You wear a device on your head that measures eye movements as the audiologist moves your head. This test allows assessment of parts of the inner ear that previously were not accessible to objective measurement.