Auditory function in vestibular migraine

Introduction: Vestibular migraine (VM) is a vestibular syndrome seen in patients with migraine and is characterized by short spells of spontaneous or positional vertigo which lasts between a few seconds to weeks. Migraine and VM are considered to be a result of chemical abnormalities in the serotonin pathway. Neuhauser′s diagnostic criteria for vestibular migraine is widely accepted. Research on VM is still limited and there are few studies which have been published on this topic. Materials and Methods: This study has two parts. In the first part, we did a retrospective chart review of eighty consecutive patients who were diagnosed with vestibular migraine and determined the frequency of auditory dysfunction in these patients. The second part was a prospective case control study in which we compared the audiological parameters of thirty patients diagnosed with VM with thirty normal controls to look for any significant differences. Results: The frequency of vestibular migraine in our population is 22%. The frequency of hearing loss in VM is 33%. Conclusion: There is a significant difference between cases and controls with regards to the presence of distortion product otoacoustic emissions in both ears. This finding suggests that the hearing loss in VM is cochlear in origin.