Background
Bilateral Vestibulopathy (BVP) leads to unsteadiness and oscillopsia when walking or standing which worsen in darkness, on uneven ground or during head motion. The aim of this study is (1)to investigate whether the Mini-BESTTest can be used in patients with BVP,(2) to examine how they perform in terms of their overall score and their subcomponent scores, (3) to see whether these scores reveal consistent balance deficits in relation to healthy reference data from the literature.

Methods
Fifty participants with BVP were assessed using the Mini-Balance Evaluation System Test as part of a larger study. The Mini-BESTest evaluates four components of balance, namely anticipatory, reactive postural control, sensory orientation and dynamic gait. It comprises 14 items and each item is scored from 0 (unable to perform) to 2 (normal performance) with a maximum score of 28. To compare the overall scores and sub-scores between our patients with BVP and the obtained individual data of healthy participants from the literature (n=195), Mann-Whitney U tests were used. Age and sex distributions of the groups were similar.

Results
BVP had significantly lower total scores of Mini-Balance Evaluation Systems Test than the healthy control group (U(N_BVP=50, N_Healthy=195)=2841.00, p<0.001) ). In the subscores, two components of the Mini-BESTest, anticipatory and sensory orientation, were significantly lower in BVP (U(N_BVP=50, N_Healthy=111)=1147.00, p<0.001 and U(N_BVP=50, N_Healthy=111)=601.50, p<0.001, respectively), while reactive postural control and dynamic gait subscores were not statistically significantly different between the groups (U(N_BVP=50, N_Healthy=111)=2431.50, p=0.275 and U(N_BVP=50, N_Healthy=111)=2681.00, p=0.719, respectively). Age of the participants in both groups was significantly negatively correlated with MiniBESTest total score.

Conclusion
The current findings illustrate that the Mini-BESTest can generally be used with patients with BVP. The findings also confirm the commonly reported balance deficits in BVP but specifically highlight deficits in balance control related to anticipatory and sensory orientation components of the Mini-BESTest.