Vestibular Migraine versus Méniere’s Disease: Diagnostic Utility of Electrocochleography

Abstract

Objectives: The diagnostic criteria for vestibular migraine (VM) and Méniere’s disease (MD) present an important overlap, which leads to a difficult diagnosis in patients presenting with headache, vertigo, hearing loss, ear fullness, and tinnitus. The objective of our study is to determine whether the area-under-the-curve ratio of the summating potentials (SP) and action potentials (AP) curves on electrocochleography (ECoG) helps differentiate VM from MD with or without the use of the well-established clinical criteria. Method: A retrospective review of patients filling either VM or MD criteria was undertaken between September 2015 and December 2018. All patients underwent ECoG before the introduction of anti-migraine therapy. The prediction of symptom improvement between the clinical criteria and ECoG results was compared by using the Vertigo Symptom Scale. Results: In total, 119 patients were included. An overlap of 36% exists between patients filling VM and MD criteria. Clinical criteria alone did not demonstrate a significant prediction of symptom response to anti-migraine therapy (VM 83%, MD 51%; p = 0.10). However, ECoG results alone did demonstrate adequate prediction (VM 94%, MD 32%; p < 0.001). A negative ECoG result combined with the clinical criteria of VM (100% symptom improvement) was shown to be more predictive of treatment response when compared to clinical criteria alone (83% symptom improvement) (p = 0.017). Finally, when used in patients filling both the VM and MD criteria (VMMD), ECoG was able to predict symptom improvement, thus better differentiating both diseases (normal ECoG: 95%, abnormal ECoG 29%; p < 0.001). Conclusion: Combining VM criteria with normal ECoG using the AUC ratio seems superior in predicting adequate symptom improvement than VM criteria alone.