[Meniere's disease in the elderly].
OBJECTIVE
To focus on the prevalence of rare Meniere's disease in the elderly(> or = 60 yrs) and to investigate its clinical characteristics.


METHODS
To observe the elderly with Meniere's disease from 2004-01-2007-7 and to investigate its clinical manifestation, electrocochleography (ECoG), vestibular evoked myogenic potential (VEMP), caloric test and pure tone audiogram.


RESULTS
There were 13 cases of Meniere's disease in the elderly. And the prevalence of Meniere's disease was 2.22% (13/586). The initial symptoms were as following: 2 cases with cochlear and vestibular symptoms, 9 cases with mere cochlear symptoms, 1 cases with mere spinning vertigo and 1 case with mere drop attack. The audiogram in the elderly were varied: low and high frequency hearing loss, flat, and high-frequency hearing loss. And the high frequency hearing loss had no relation with the duration of Meniere's disease. The results of vestibular function were varied. The percentage of positive result of ECoG was 63.6% (7/11, 2 cases not determined).


CONCLUSIONS
The prevalence of Meniere's disease in children was 2.22%. The initial symptoms was cochlear and vestibular symptoms, mere cochlear symptoms, mere spinning vertigo and mere drop attack, respectively. The audiogram showed prominent high frequency hearing loss. The percentage of positive result of ECoG was high. And the results of vestibular function tests were varied.
Department of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, Chinese PLA General Hospital, Otolaryngology Institute of Chinese PLA, Beijing, 100853, China. zimingwu@163.com
Ziming
Z
Wu
Suzhen
S
Zhang
Xingjian
X
Liu
Fei
F
Ji
Aiting
A
Chen
Weiyan
W
Yang
Dongyi
D
Han
D000368:Aged; D001300:Audiometry, Evoked Response; D001301:Audiometry, Pure-Tone; D003051:Cochlea / Q000503:physiopathology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008575:Meniere Disease / Q000503:physiopathology; D008875:Middle Aged