Meniere’s syndrome- is it a vascular lesion of inner ear?

Authors

Dr.med. Ágnes Szirmai (Budapest, Hungary)

Proceedings

XXXI Congress of the NES - Bad Kissingen - Germany

Topics

Neurootology
Equilibrium
Diseases
Neurootology
Equilibrium
Neurootology

Keywords

Cerebrovascular disorders, Meniere, Ménière's disease, PET, Vascular vertigo.

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Abstract

Introduction: The classic Menière’s disease triad is: recurrent, episodic vertigo, hearing loss, not always fluctuating, and aural fullness or/and tinnitus. The etiology of the labyrinthine hydrops is not clear. Some authors suggest a connection between Meniére’ s syndrome, and vascular disorders. Single photon emission computer tomography scanning has been shown to be more sensitive than morphologic imaging techniques, like MR and CT in many conditions.
Methods: The detailed case history evaluation was performed by conversation and questionnaire. The cochleovestibular function of all the patients was examined by separate cochlear nerve and vestibular function tests.
Results: Most of the patients have vertiginous attacks, but the duration of the attacks were variable. Either the shape of the audiograms, or the vestibular findings showed expressly variableness. 92,1% of all SPECT examination was pathological.
Discussion: In most of our cases the classic triad of Menière’s syndrome are present, but in few cases one of them is absent. The audiogram’s shapes were expressly variable, only 5% were the typical unilateral low frequency-hearing loss. In the diagnosing of the decreased blood flow as a reason of Menière’s syndrome the single photon emission computer tomography (SPECT) is a very useful diagnostic method.