Ricerc@Sapienza

Objectives/Hypothesis: To evaluate the incidence of chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency in Menière's disease patients and the effect of bilateral percutaneous transluminal angioplasty of the jugular/azygos veins compared to medical therapy. Study Design: Prospective case–control study. Methods: Five hundred fourteen subjects were included in the study, 412 affected by definite Menière's disease, and 102 healthy controls. All patients underwent audiovestibular and vascular examination.

The role of the immune system in mediating cochleovestibular pathologies has received increasing attention in recent years. Autoimmune vertigo may be an invalidating condition and may worsen the quality of life of affected patients, especially in the cases of delayed diagnosis. Since the etiopathogenesis is still not clear, also the treatment is not yet completely delineated. According to the clinical presentation, autoimmune vertigo can present as an isolated disorder or in association with systemic autoimmune diseases.

Autoimmune sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) is a rare clinical entity accounting for less than 1% of all cases of hearing loss; however, this could be an underestimation based on the absence of specific diagnostic tests and the complexity of differential diagnosis. The disease could be localized only in the ear or hearing loss could be a symptom of a systemic autoimmune disease.