·
Electrovestibulograpy (EVestG) is a
diagnostic tool being applied
towards the Classification, Severity
measure, Drug Efficacy measure,
Physical Treatment efficacy measure
and Prediction of treatment
efficacy in neurological and
neurodegenerative disorders. EVestG is a recording of the vestibulo-
acoustic activity from the ear canal (Lithgow, 2012).
Diagnostic and therapeutic development for neurological and neurodegenerative disorders: (Examples
using EVestG)
o
The identification of Depression
type (the depressive phase of
Bipolar Disorder (BD) versus Major
Depressive Disorder (MDD)) is
challenging at first clinical visit and
is often wrong especially in Bipolar
Type II wherein an obvious Manic
phase may not have presented
yet. The figure shows the
identification of Bipolar and Major
Depression at baseline using
EVestG measures. (Lithgow et. al.,
2019)
o
Being able to detect Post Concussion
Syndrome (PCS) is difficult particularly long
term PCS. This is made more difficult when
Depression is a comorbidity. Opposite is
the identification of PCS patients with and
without comorbid depression versus
healthy controls when using EVestG
measures. (Suleiman et. al, 2018)
o
Identifying Dementia (sub) types;
Dementia often occurs with vascular disease. One form of Dementia is Vascular Dementia. The most
common dementia,
Alzheimer’s Disease, often
occurs with comorbidities
such as cerebrovascular
symptomatologies and is
termed Mixed Dementia
(ADcvd) . It is important to be
able to identify ADcvd that
best treatment/therapy may
be applied. (Lithgow et al.,
2021)
Predicting which Alzheimer
patients will benefit from
repetative transcranial magnet
stimulation (rTMS) treatment.
rTMS is an expensive and lengthy
magnetic therapy applied to
improve cognition in Alzheimer
patients. Only about half benefit
from rTMS so selecting only those
who will likely benefit means the
others can be given alternate
treatments better suited to their
individual condition. (Lithgow et
al. 2022, In Press).
Modelling of vestibular electro-neurophysiology. Understanding the pathophysiology behind the
measures being applied to measure the eficacy of a treatment is vital. Modelling the neurological
response is one way to improve that understanding.