Cervical VEMP tuning changes by Meniere's disease stages

OBJECTIVE: To determine if changes in cervical vestibular‐evoked myogenic potential (cVEMP) testing reflect the different stages of cochlea‐saccular hydrops in Meniere's disease (MD). METHODS: This is a case‐control retrospective series. Forty‐seven patients with unilateral MD by American Academy of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery diagnostic and staging criteria, and 30 with non‐MD vertigo as control. Meniere patients were further classified based on symptoms at the time of testing as active or stable. Subsequently, patients underwent cVEMP testing by tone‐burst stimuli at 500 and 1,000 Hz. The main outcome measure was to compare the cVEMP 1,000 and 500 Hz amplitude ratio in ears with MD and non‐MD vertigo, and in active versus stable MD. RESULTS: The cVEMP 1,000/500 Hz amplitude ratio was higher in Meniere's ears (mean = 1.14 μV, SD = 0.25) than in non‐Meniere's ears (mean = 0.96 μV, SD = 0.2) (Student's t test, P = .001), and higher in active (mean = 1.22 μV, SD = 0.25) than in stable MD (mean = 1.00 μV, SD = 0.18) (P = .0035). The diagnostic value of cVEMP 1,000/500 Hz amplitude ratio to differentiate MD versus non‐MD vertigo was evaluated with a receiver‐operating characteristics (ROC) curve and the area under the curve (AUC) was 0.716 (95% confidence interval [CI] [0.591, 0.829]). The ideal cutoff point was 0.9435 with sensitivity and specificity values of 83% and 53%, respectively. The sensitivity and specificity values for this test to differentiate active versus stable MD were 68% and 81%, respectively, with AUC 0.746 (95% CI [0.607, 0.885]) and cutoff value of 1.048. In all ears, the 1,000/500 Hz amplitude ratio increased by a decrease of the 500 Hz amplitude with increasing age. CONCLUSION: The cVEMP 1,000/500 Hz amplitude ratio is elevated in ears with MD but not in those with non‐MD vertigo. After corrected by age, this ratio is higher in active but not in stable MD, probably reflecting dynamic changes in saccular membrane motion mechanics in hydrops, and may be a useful marker of disease progression and the effect of therapy. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: IV