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The test is commonly used by physicians, audiologists and other trained professionals to validate a diagnosis of asymmetric function in the peripheral vestibular system. Calorics are usually a subtest of the electronystagmography (ENG) battery of tests. It is one of several tests which can be used to test for brain stem death.
The brainstem is very small, making up around only 2.6 percent of the brain's total weight. [3] It has the critical roles of regulating heart and respiratory function, helping to control heart rate and breathing rate. [4] It also provides the main motor and sensory nerve supply to the face and neck via the cranial nerves.
Brainstem death is a clinical syndrome defined by the absence of reflexes with pathways through the brainstem – the "stalk" of the brain, which connects the spinal cord to the mid-brain, cerebellum and cerebral hemispheres – in a deeply comatose, ventilator-dependent patient.
The exams must show complete and irreversible absence of brain function (brain stem function in UK), [23] and may include two isoelectric (flat-line) EEGs 24 hours apart (less in other countries where it is accepted that if the cause of the dysfunction is a clear physical trauma there is no need to wait that long to establish irreversibility ...
Caloric reflex test also evaluates both cortical and brainstem function Cold water is injected into one ear and the patient is observed for eye movement If the patient's eyes slowly deviate toward the ear where the water was injected, then the brainstem is intact, however failure to deviate toward the injected ear indicates damage of the ...
Per the United Kingdom Medical Royal Colleges, a diagnosis of brain death is a two-fold process including 1) identifying the cause of irreversible brain damage and excluding reversible causes of brain damage and 2) conducting a series of clinical and laboratory tests to assess brain stem function. [7] [8]
Emergency physicians routinely test pupillary light reflex to assess brain stem function. Abnormal pupillary reflex can be found in optic nerve injury, oculomotor nerve damage, brain stem lesion (including brain stem death), and depressant drugs, such as barbiturates. [5] [6] Examples are provided as below:
ABR is a neurologic tests of auditory brainstem function in response to auditory (click) stimuli. Electrocochleography a variant of ABR, tests the impulse transmission function of the cochlea in response to auditory (click) stimuli. It is most often used to detect endolymphatic hydrops in the diagnosis/assessment of Meniere's disease.