Cerebrovascular burden and its association with Ménière’s disease: a case-control study

Purpose No universally accepted model describes Ménière´s disease (MD) pathogenesis. Nevertheless, the vascular hypothesis for MD has recently been revisited. The objective was to compare the cerebrovascular burden of MD patients with controls. Methods Patients were evaluated concerning magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) features of small-vessel disease (SVD), cortical strokes and baseline comorbidities. Analyses were performed comparing MD and age-matched controls. Results A total of 145 patients were enrolled (70 MD and 75 controls). The MD group showed higher mean SVD scores (SVD-3: 0.56 ± 0.9 in MD vs 0.29 ± 0.6 in controls, p = 0.041; SVD-3 _low-Fazekas : 1.10 ± 0.8 in MD vs 0.71 ± 0.7 in controls, p = 0.002; SVD-3 _low-EPVS : 1.21 ± 0.9 in MD vs 0.76 ± 0.8 in controls, p = 0.002; SVD-3 _{low-Fazekas + low-EPVS} : 1.79 ± 0.9 in MD vs 1.21 ± 0.9 in controls, p < 0.001). This association persisted after confounder adjustment for age, sex and comorbidities (OR:1.746, p = 0.045 for SVD-3; OR:2.495, p = 0.002 for SVD-3 _low-Fazekas ; OR: 2.234, p = 0.001 for SVD-3 _low-EPVS ; OR: 2.428, p < 0.001 for SVD-3 _{low-Fazekas low-EPVS} ). Neither the presence of cortical strokes (10% in MD vs 4% in controls, p = 0.154) nor comorbidities significantly differ between groups (p > 0.05). Conclusions This is the first study to compare MD with controls according to cerebrovascular burden. Cerebrovascular dysfunction may influence the incidence of MD. Further studies supporting the relationship of cerebrovascular disease with MD are needed.