Tinnitus in Hereditary Menière's Syndrome

In 1997, the authors described a large family with classic Menière's syndrome and migraine inherited as an autosomal dominant trait. Using a special questionnaire applicable to all the affected members of this family, the majority of respondents convincingly demonstrated true migraine preceding or after the Menière's attacks. Now we have used another questionnaire designed to describe the natural history of tinnitus and have posed the questions therein to all members of this sibship affected by migraine, Menière's syndrome, or both. In this way, we obtained a clear description of tinnitus regarding volume, intensity, and degree of annoyance; time of onset and duration; variations with time; and so on. The relations of tinnitus with the other Menière's symptoms and with the migraine also were explored. Only headache appears more often than tinnitus in these patients, and the latter is the only symptom constantly present, with little variation during migraine and Menière's attacks. These findings are discussed.