Menière's disease clinical subtypes and baseline characteristics in a Dutch patient cohort

The aim of this study is to provide a detailed description of a Dutch cohort of patients with Menière's disease (MD), classify patients into clinical subtypes according to the criteria proposed by Frejo et al., and compare the distribution of these subtypes with cohorts from Spain, the United States, and China.

A retrospective, cross-sectional chart review was conducted among 375 patients diagnosed with definite MD at two Dutch medical centers. Patients were classified into five clinical subtypes of unilateral MD or 5 subtypes of bilateral MD. Baseline characteristics were analyzed and compared across subtypes and international cohorts.

Of the 375 included patients, 335 had unilateral MD of which 49.0% were type 1 (classic MD), 23.6% type 2 (delayed MD), 6.6% type 3 (familial MD), 13.7% type 4 (migraine-associated MD), and 7.2% type 5 (autoimmune MD). This distribution differed significantly from the Spanish cohort regarding the delayed and familial subgroups, and from the Chinese cohort regarding the familial subgroup. Forty cases of bilateral MD were observed, with differences in the synchronic subgroup when compared to the Spanish cohort.

This study describes the clinical subtypes of MD within a Dutch patient cohort, with subtype distributions more closely resembling those of the American and Chinese cohorts than the Spanish cohort. This suggest regional variation in the clinical expression of MD.