Affiliations: [a] Harvard University – Massachusetts Institute of Technology Division of Health Sciences and Technology, Boston, USA | [b] Harvard Medical School, Department of Otology and Laryngology, Boston, USA | [c] Jenks Vestibular Diagnostic Laboratory of the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, Boston, USA
Correspondence:
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Corresponding author: Conrad Wall III, Ph.D., Jenks Vestibular Diagnostic Laboratory, Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, 243 Charles St., Boston, MA 02114, USA. Tel.: +1 617 573 4154; Fax: +1 617 573 4154; E-mail: cwall@mit.edu
Abstract: Although patient symptoms and an audiogram can typically identify the affected ear or ears in Ménière's disease, there are some cases where this differentiation is problematic. This paper concentrates on the sole use of vestibular test data to discriminate between unilateral and bilateral Ménière's disease. Patients that were known to have peripheral unilateral vestibular hypofunction (n = 104) were used as learning groups to define a region in multidimensional measurement space consisting of four vestibular test scores which summarized data from electronystagmography, sinusoidal harmonic acceleration, and computerized dynamic posturography tests. A multivariate boundary was created from the unilateral learning group that determined thresholds for identifying bilateral vestibular hypofunction. Patients with bilateral Ménière's disease (n = 23) and with bilateral ototoxicity (n = 19) were then used as test subjects to determine the sensitivity of the multivariate boundary. Results showed up to a increase in estimated test sensitivity (specificity = 95%) bilateral vestibular hypofunction.
