Use of electrocochleography to monitor antigenic challenge in Menière's disease.

Abstract

Allergy has been reported as a cause of Menière's disease. King et al. have established the validity of the provocative food test (PFT) for the diagnosis of food allergy. When the PFT is used to test patients with Menière's disease, the test is considered positive if the patient develops aural fullness, hearing loss, increased tinnitus, or dizziness during challenge with the offending food and relief of these symptoms during neutralization. Ferraro et al. have shown that electrocochleography (ECoG) provides an objective indication of subjective symptoms in Menière's disease by demonstrating an increased SP/AP amplitude ratio when the symptoms of aural fullness and hearing loss are present. We present several patients with Menière's disease in whom measurement of the SP/AP amplitude ratio was compared with symptom production during antigenic challenge and neutralization.