[Development of audiologic symptoms in Ménière disease]

A flat or low-frequency hearing loss is generally accepted as being characteristic of Menière's disease. However, the transition between different types of pure tone audiograms during the course of the disease, and their relation to vestibular damage, have so far been investigated only rarely. We investigated the correlation between the vestibular deficiency and changes in the pure tone threshold on 50 patients with confirmed Menière's disease. We also analyzed the correlation between duration of the disease and vestibulo-cochlear impairment. The 0.25-kHz-tone and the frequency range of 2 kHz showed a highly significant correlation to vestibular impairment, but the higher frequencies of 4 and 6 kHz correlated poorly with vestibulo-cochlear deficiency. Thus conclusions may be drawn about the extent of the permanent vestibular damage and the stage of the disease from the pure tone audiogram.