Correlation between vestibular response to caloric stimulation and cochlear function in Ménière's disease

Objective

To analyze the correlation between caloric testing response patterns with respect to cochlear impairment in individuals with unilateral Ménière's disease.

Methods

In this observational cross-sectional study, the factor under study was Ménière's disease and the outcome was cochleovestibular function, evaluated through caloric stimulation using videonystagmography and four-frequency averages in pure tone audiometry.

Results

A total of 187 patients (equal sex distribution) who met the inclusion criteria were included. In impairment analysis of the affected ear, 17 patients had only vestibular impairment, 56 had only cochlear impairment, and 114 had cochleovestibular impairment. The distribution of Ménière's disease stages according to four-frequency average was grade I: 23.53%, grade II: 16.04%, grade III: 42.25%, and grade IV: 18.18%. There was a significant association (p < 0.001) between the affected ear and labyrinthine preponderance. The Spearman correlation between four-frequency average and labyrinth preponderance (r = 0.326) indicated a moderate correlation, considering p < 0.01.

Conclusion

Our results show that the greater the cochlear damage due to Ménière's disease, the more impaired the vestibular function in the affected ear.

Level of evidence

Level 2 - Individual cross-sectional studies with consistently applied reference standard and blinding