The Follow-Up Role of the Vestibular Evoked Myogenic Potential Test in Meniere's Disease.

Despite some proposed roles for the diagnostic impact of the cervical vestibular evoked myogenic potential test in the patients with Meniere's disease, the role of this test as an objective instrument in following up the patients with Meniere's disease who underwent. Intratympanic steroid injection is not cleared. In a prospective study, thirty-one adult patients with definite one-sided Meniere's disease with vertigo as main complaint refractory to medical treatments for three months, were selected. Patients underwent three times of intratympanic dexamethasone injection with one-week intervals. We performed cervical vestibular evoked myogenic potential test at first and four weeks after the last injection for all participants. We followed the patients for one year. The study results were analyzed with the chi-square test. Cervical vestibular evoked myogenic potential test could not be recorded in 26 patients (83.9%), and the test results were abnormal in the remaining 5 patients. The results were abnormal in the healthy ear of 32.3% of the patients. Despite the clinical improvement of the symptoms after intratympanic injection, the test results were not changed. Cervical vestibular evoked myogenic potential test could not be recorded in the majority of the patients with Meniere's disease; while it is usually recorded in normal ears. On the other hand, results of the cervical vestibular evoked myogenic potential test do not change during the early phase after treatment and could not be a good option for follow up and evaluating the response in this situation.

Intratympanic Injection of Dexamethasone and Electrocochleographic Data in Cases of Definite One Sided Refractory Meniere's Disease.

INTRODUCTION: Meniere's disease (MD) is a disease of the inner ear that presents itself with repeated episodes of vertigo (96.2%), tinnitus (91.1%), and sensorineural hearing loss (87.7 %). In this article we sought to assess the effects of intratympanic (IT) injections of dexamethasone on definite cases of MD using electrocochleography (ECOG). MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this hospital-based case series in 36 patients, we measured audiometric values and ECOG in all patients before, 1 month and 6 months after 4-mg/mL IT injections of dexamethasone. RESULTS: Four patients (11%) had improved hearing following the intervention. No difference in pure tone audiometry (PTA) was observed following IT injections (P=0.492), while speech discrimination score (SDS) was significantly improved (P=0.008). There was a significant improvement in vertigo 1 month after IT injections (P<0.001), although this effect did not last for 6 months. No significant change in ECOG was observed between before and after treatment (P=0.052). CONCLUSION: IT dexamethasone injections can improve vertigo in definite cases of MD, although it seems that the effect is only temporary.

Sex-specific association of RANTES gene -403 variant in Meniere's disease.

Several studies have shown the correlation between RANTES gene and inflammatory disorders; the aim of the present study was to investigate the association between RANTES promoter gene polymorphism and Meniere's disease (MD) in an Iranian population. In this study patients with MD comprising definite MD (N = 56) and probable MD (N = 15) were selected according to diagnostic criteria of AAO-HNS. The control group (N = 101) were healthy normal subjects who did not have a history of ear disease and vertigo. PCR-RFLP for RANTES -403G>A has been performed. We found a protective role for RANTES -403A allele in male group in our population. None of the male patients with MD were carrier of allele A which was significantly different from the presence of allele A in the male control group (AA+GA vs. GG: p = 0.0004, OR 0.05, 95 % CI 0.001-0.39). This difference was not significant in female group. There was no significant association between RANTES gene polymorphism and the level of hearing loss. our results showed a sex-specific association between RANTES gene polymorphism and MD but more studies are necessary to further assess this association.