Incidence of endolymphatic hydrops among patients with Meniere's disease attending the vertigo clinic of Nara Medical University

Abstract

Objectives: Our aim was to compare the incidence of endolymphatic hydrops (EH) between patients with unilateral/bilateral Meniere's disease (MD) and controls using a glycerol test, electrocochleogram, and 3―T magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) with intravenous gadolinium. Methods: A total of 82 patients were diagnosed as having MD: 71 with unilateral MD (uMD), and 11 with bilateral MD (bMD). We enrolled 47 healthy volunteers as controls. The patients underwent a glycerol test, an electrocochleogram, and 3―T MRI at 4 h after the intravenous injection of gadolinium (inner ear MRI). Results & Conclusions: The incidences of cochlear and/or vestibular EH as observed using inner ear MRI were significantly higher in the affected ears of patients with MD than in the ears of healthy controls or the contralateral ears of the patients with MD. The positive glycerol test and electrocochleogram rates were also significantly higher in the affected ear than in the contralateral ear of the patients with MD. In the present study, all the tests were useful for diagnosing MD, but inner ear MRI had the highest rate of positive results among all three tests.