Otolithic testing in unilateral Meniere's disease

Patients suffering from unilateral Meniere's disease and treated conservatively were evaluated using pure tone audiometry, caloric responses measured by electronystagmography and otolith resting by means of estimation of subjective horizontal during eccentric rotation. The latter investigation comprises testing the subject in a rotatory chair where he is eccentrically seated and faces the direction of rotation. Thus the otolith organs are stimulated in the steady state rotation, while the semicircular canals do not signal after a short initial period. The subject experiences a lateral tilt and in darkness he is instructed to put a short light bar in the position he thinks a water surface would have, which is identical to his perceived tilt. In the eccentric rotation test, the patients with unilateral Meniere's disease showed highly variable responses, sometimes even paradoxical ones. There was no correlation between the eccentric otolith test and pure tone audiometry or the side difference of the caloric responses. Otolith, auditory and lateral semicircular canal functions may differ in patients with Meniere's disease, the nature of which remains to be elucidated in further studies.