[Significance of the items for Dizziness Handicap Inventory in differential diagnosis of benign paroxysmal positional vertigo].

OBJECTIVE: To explore the value of items for the Chinese version of Dizziness Handicap Inventory (DHI) in differential diagnosis of benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV) in patients with vertigo or dizziness first coming to the outpatient clinic.
 Methods: A total of 322 patients with vertigo or dizziness, who came from Nanfang Hospital, Southern Medical University, were enrolled from April 2016 to February 2017. The Chinese version of DHI and Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) were completed by themselves. After detailed vestibular function examination, the patients were divided into a BPPV group, a normal vestibular group, and a abnormal vestibular group.
 Results: The score of DHI-2 in the BPPV group was 5.52±2.10, which was higher than that in the normal vestibular group (3.94±2.91)(t=3.847, P<0.01) and the abnormal vestibular group (4.17±2.74)(t=4.149, P<0.01). There were significant differences in the DHI-2 among the 3 groups (F=9.870, t=4.515, P<0.01). The score of DHI-item 13 in the BPPV group was 3.09±1.39, which was higher than that in the normal vestibular group (1.97±1.63)(t=4.515, P<0.01) and the abnormal vestibular group (1.95±1.70)(t=5.305, P<0.01). There were significant differences in the DHI-item 13 among the 3 groups (F=16.402, P<0.01). There was significant difference in VAS scores among the 3 groups (P<0.05). However, the t-test analysis showed that there was significant difference between the BPPV group and the vestibular abnormal group (P<0.05), while there was no significant difference between the BPPV group and the vestibular normal group (P>0.05).
 Conclusion: DHI-2 and DHI-item 13 should be included in the inquiry of disease history at the time of first diagnosis, which can be used to identify patients with BPPV quickly and effectively.