Automatic analysis of electronystagmographic signals

The vestibular system is important to the maintenance of the static and dynamic equilibrium system of the human body. Disfunctions within this system may lead to abnormal reflex eye movements named nystagmus. The study and analysis of these nystagmus are needed to the precise diagnosis of various pathologies, and is best done with electronystagmography (ENG). Manual analysis of the ENG record is time-consuming, therefore a computerized system was developed for data processing and an algorithm for the automatic evaluation of the nystagmus´ slow-component velocity. This algorithm allows a faster and precise evaluation of the nystagmus, through artifact rejection techniques. Comparisons among results obtained with the computerized algorithm and analysis of four specialists over a collection of selected signals presented an error lower than 1°/s (degrees per second) related to the clinically obtained mean