Ménière’s disease with unremitting floating sensation is associated with canal paresis, gravity-sensitive dysfunction, mental illness, and bilaterality

Abstract Objective The aim of the present study was to evaluate the association of neuro-otological examination, blood tests, and scoring questionnaire data with treatment-resistant intractability of persistent dizziness in Meniere’s disease. Methods We managed 1520 successive vertigo/dizziness patients at the Vertigo/Dizziness Center in Nara Medical University from May 2014 to April 2018. Five hundred and twenty-two patients were diagnosed with Meniere’s disease (522/1520; 34.3%) according to the 2015 diagnostic guideline of the International Classification of Vestibular Disorders. Among the patients with Meniere’s disease there were 102 with intractable rotatory vertigo attacks for more than 3–6 months (102/522; 19.5%), including 20 bilateral cases (20/102; 19.6%), and 88 with intractable unremitting floating sensation rather than rotatory vertigo attacks for more than 3–6 months (88/522; 16.9%), including 28 bilateral cases (28/88; 31.8%). Sixty out of 88 cases with intractable unremitting floating sensation were unilateral and were enrolled for hospitalization to undergo neuro-otological examinations including pure-tone audiometry (PTA), the caloric test (C-test), vestibular evoked cervical myogenic potentials (cVEMP), subjective visual vertical (SVV) test, glycerol test (G-test), electrocochleogram (ECoG), inner ear magnetic resonance imaging (ieMRI), blood tests including anti-diuretic hormone (ADH) and bone alkaline phosphatase (BAP), and self-rating questionnaires of depression score (SDS). Data are presented as positive (+) ratios of the number of patients with examination and questionnaire data outside of the normal range. Results The ratios (+) were as follows: C-test = 33.3% (20/60), cVEMP = 25.0% (15/60), SVV = 50.0% (30/60), G-test = 55.0% (33/60), ECoG = 63.3% (38/60), ieMRI = 86.7% (52/60), ADH = 35.0% (21/60), BAP = 11.7% (7/60), and SDS = 40.0% (24/60). Multivariate regression analysis revealed that the periods of persistent dizziness were significantly longer in unilateral Meniere’s patients with C-test(+), SVV(+), and SDS(+) compared with those with negative findings. Additionally, the periods in bilateral cases were significantly longer than those in unilateral ones. Conclusions Although approximately 70% of patients with Meniere’s disease are usually treatable through the appropriate conservative medical therapy, the presence of canal paresis, gravity-sensitive dysfunction, neurosis/depression, and bilaterality may make the persistent dizziness intractable and may thus require additional treatments.