Abstract:Objective To investigate the clinical significance and formation mechanism by analyzing the characteristics of the nystagmus from benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV) in positioning test. Methods There were 398 BPPV cases for retrospective analysis. The video -nystagmography was utilized to record the nystagmus in positioning tests. The direction, latent period and duration of nystagmus during the positioning tests of posterior canal BPPV (PC-BPPV) and horizontal canal BPPV (HC-BPPV) were analyzed and compared. Results There were totally 398 BPPV cases, Among the 290 cases (73.1%) with posterior canal BPPV, geotropic, rotative,and antrorse nystagmus was induced in 271 cases, with the mean latency period of (26.36 ±18.70) s and the mean duration of (10.88 ±8.89) s. Among the 103 cases with HC-BPPV (25.8%), horizontal geotropic nystagmus was induced in 76 cases, with the mean latency period of (0.67 ±0.68) s and the mean duration of (25.34 ±20.12) s.And in the 24 cases with horizontal apogeotropic nystagmus, the mean latency period was (3.59 ±2.01) s, and the mean duration was (52.30 ±40.21) s. Compared with PC-BPPV, the latent period (t = 21.13,P = 0.007) and the duration ( t= 8.89, P= 0.002) were statistically different in HC-BPPV with geotropic nystagmu; and the duration (t=6.10, P= 0.003) was staticstical different, but the latent period was not significantly different ( t= 0.08,P = 0.945)in HC-BPPV with apogeotropic nystagmus. Conclusions In positioning test, the latent period of PC-BPPV is longer than that of HC-BPPV with geotropic nystagmus, but not necessarily longer than that of HC-BPPV with apogeotropic nystagmus. The nystagmus duration of PC-BPPV is shorter than that of HC-BPPV with geotropic nystagmus and apogeotropic nystagmus.