Honaker et al 2009, retrospective chart review: 736 charts of patients with chronic dizziness, 213 with caloric weakness, age 15-89 years; FST independent of turn direction yielded an area under the curve of 0.54, with a cut score of 45° found sensitivity of 0.43, specificity of 0.65 and a likelihood ratio of 1.24, retrospective chart review of 736 patients with chronic dizziness, all able to perform Romberg. 533 without caloric weakness, 147 with mild caloric weakness (25-50%); 44 with moderate caloric weakness (50-75%) and 22 with severe caloric weakness (75-100%). For mild weakness FST independent of turn direction revealed an area with under the curve (AUC) of 0.47, for a cut score of 22.5 sensitivity was 0.25, specificity was 0.76 with a likelihood ratio (LR) of 1.04; For moderate weakness FST independent of turn direction revealed an AUC of 0.52, for a cut score of 27.5° the sensitivity was 0.34, specificity 0.76 with an LR of 1.42; For severe weakness the FST independent of turn direction revealed an AUC of 0.53, using a cut score of 37.5° the sensitivity was 0.37 and specificity 0.79 with a LR of 1.76.
Zhang and Wang 2011 evaluated 126 patients with unilateral vestibular dysfunction (idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss, temporal bone trauma, vestibular neuritis) 20-70 years, mean age 46.8 ± 13 years
Hickey et al 1990 evaluated 49 healthy control subjects (mean age 37 ± 12 years) and 26 patients with suspected peripheral vestibular dysfunction (mean age 50 ± 16 years) 16 of which had significant canal paresis. There was no significant difference between the 2 groups in angle of rotation, angle of displacement or distance traveled. No correlation was found between angle of rotation and amount of canal paresis. No significant differences in performance were found with increasing age.