A New Proposal for Severity Evaluation of Menière's Disease by Using the Evidence From a Comprehensive Battery of Auditory and Vestibular Tests

Endolymphatic hydrops imaging and correlation with clinical characteristics, audiovestibular function and mental impairment in patients with Meniere's disease

PURPOSE

MR imaging was used to visualize the vestibular and cochlear endolymphatic hydrops in patients with Meniere's disease (MD). The relationship between the degree of hydrops and clinical characteristics, audiovestibular function, anxiety and depression state in MD patients.

METHODS

70 patients with definitely or probably unilateral Meniere's disease received bilateral intratympanic gadolinium administration and MR scanning. The degree of bilateral vestibular and cochlea hydrops were analyzed and evaluated by three-dimensional real inversion recovery (3D-real IR) sequence, and the correlation between the grades of endolymphatic hydrops (EH) and disease course, vertigo grading assessment, the duration of vertigo, hearing loss level, caloric test, vestibular myogenic evoked potential (VEMP), electrocochleogram (EcoG), vertigo disability scale (physical, emotional, functional), anxiety and depression scale were studied.

RESULTS

It was found that the vestibule and cochlea EH of the affected and the contralateral ear had different degrees of hydrops and there was no statistical difference between the left and right vestibules. The degree of vestibule EH (V-EH) was significantly positively correlated with the degree of cochlear EH (C-EH). C-EH and hearing loss level were positively correlated with EcoG. There was positive correlation between vestibular EH and hearing loss level, VEMP, caloric test, disease course or vertigo duration. There was a negative relationship between Dizziness Handicap Inventory (Emotion) (DHI(E)) and VEMP. Self-rating Anxiety Scale (SAS) and Self-rating Depression Scale (SDS) scores were positive correlated with DHI(E) and DHI total scores in MD patients.

CONCLUSION

Endolymph-enhancing MRI was used as an important imaging method for the diagnosis of labyrinthine hydrops in Meniere's disease. There were certain correlation between EH and the degree of vertigo attack, hearing loss level, vestibular function, and further changes in anxiety and depression emotion.

Subjective Visual Vertical and Vestibular Evoked Myogenic Potential in Meniere's disease

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate otolith function by comparing the findings of the Subjective Visual Vertical, the cervical Vestibular Evoked Myogenic Potential and the ocular Vestibular Evoked Myogenic Potential tests in patients in the inter-crisis period of unilateral definite Meniere's disease.

METHODS

The sample consisted of an experimental group (n=22; 10 men and 12 women, mean age 47.32±12.82 years) with definite unilateral Meniere's disease and a control group (n=14; 5 men and 9 women, with a mean age of 41.64±13.45 years). They all underwent vestibular evaluation by means of Subjective Visual Vertical with the bucket method and, cervical and ocular Vestibular Evoked Myogenic Potential tests. The data were collected and subjected to statistical analysis.

RESULTS

The results of the comparison of the Subjective Visual Vertical, the cervical Vestibular Evoked Myogenic Potential, the ocular Vestibular Evoked Myogenic Potential and, the association of cervical Vestibular Evoked Myogenic Potential with the ocular Vestibular Evoked Myogenic Potential showed no significant difference, indicating concordance among the tests.

CONCLUSION

The identified abnormalities and the concordance between the combined proportion of the Subjective Visual Vertical, the cervical Vestibular Evoked Myogenic Potential and the ocular Vestibular Evoked Myogenic Potential findings indicate that the association of these three tests contributes to the identification of sustained and transient otolith dysfunction in the inter-crisis of unilateral definite Meniere's disease.

LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 2

[Application of vestibular function examination battery in the staging of vestibular function in Meniere's disease]

Objective:To investigate the staging of vestibular organ damage in Meniere's disease, based on the vestibular function examination battery. Methods:Thirty-nine patients, clinically diagnosed as unilateral Meniere's disease, underwent audiologic test and vestibular function examination battery, including ocular vestibular evoked myogenic potential（oVEMP）, cervical vestibular evoke myogenic potential（cVEMP）, and caloric tests. Based on the results of the vestibular function examination battery, the vestibular function was divided into 4 stages. StageⅠ: oVEMP, cVEMP, and caloric tests were normal; stage Ⅱ: any one test of the three examinations was abnormal; stage Ⅲ: two of the three examinations were abnormal; Stage Ⅳ: All the three examinations were abnormal. Results:According to the vestibular function staging strategy in this study, patients in stage Ⅰ, Ⅱ, Ⅲ, Ⅳ were 7.7%（3/39）, 30.8%（12/39）, 33.3%（13/39）, 28.2%（11/39） respectively in the 39 Meniere's disease patients. However, according to the current clinical staging strategy of Meniere's disease, patients of stage1, 2, 3, 4 were 20.5%（8/39）, 43.6%（17/39）, 28.2%（11/39）, and 7.7%（3/39） respectively. 37.5%（3/8） patients in stage 1 and 64.7%（11/17） patients in stage 2 had two or more abnormal vestibular organs. While all the patients in stage 4 had abnormal semicircular canals, utricle, and saccule. The stage of vestibular function was correlated with the distribution of current clinical staging strategy of Meniere's disease（P<0.05）. Conclusion:The combination of oVEMP, cVEMP and caloric tests can divide the vestibular function into four stages, which can be used as a supplement to the traditional vestibular evaluation and clinical staging based on audiology in Meniere's disease.

Endolymphatic Hydrops in Fluctuating Hearing Loss and Recurrent Vertigo

Background: Endolymphatic hydrops (EH) is the histopathological hallmark of Ménière's disease (MD) and has been found by in vivo magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in patients with several inner ear syndromes without definite MD criteria. The incidence and relevance of this finding is under debate.

Purpose: The purpose of the study is to evaluate the prevalence and characteristics of EH and audiovestibular test results in groups of patients with fluctuating audiovestibular symptoms not fulfilling the actual criteria for definite MD and compare them with a similar group of patients with definite MD and a group of patients with recent idiopathic sudden neurosensory hearing loss (ISSNHL).

Material and Methods: 170 patients were included, 83 with definite MD, 38 with fluctuating sensorineural hearing loss, 34 with recurrent vertigo, and 15 with ISSNHL. The clinical variables, audiovestibular tests, and EH were evaluated and compared. Logistic proportional hazard models were used to obtain the odds ratio for hydrops development, including a multivariable adjusted model for potential confounders.

Results: No statistical differences between groups were found regarding disease duration, episodes, Tumarkin spells, migraine, vascular risk factors, or vestibular tests; only hearing loss showed differences. Regarding EH, we found significant differences between groups, with odds ratio (OR) for EH presence in definite MD group vs. all other patients of 11.43 (4.5–29.02; p < 0.001). If the ISSNHL group was used as reference, OR was 55.2 (11.9–253.9; p < 0.001) for the definite MD group, 9.9 (2.1–38.9; p = 0.003) for the recurrent vertigo group, and 5.1 (1.2–21.7; p = 0.03) for the group with fluctuating sensorineural hearing loss.

Conclusion: The percentage of patients with EH varies between groups. It is minimal in the ISSNHL group and increases in groups with increasing fluctuating audiovestibular symptoms, with a rate of severe EH similar to the known rate of progression to definite MD in those groups, suggesting that presence of EH by MRI could be related to the risk of progression to definite MD. Thus, EH imaging in these patients is recommended.