While Paul Kileny, MD, PhD, of the University of Michigan Medical Schoo, was treating patients with superior semicircular canal dehiscence (SSCD), he noticed something a bit strange: The patients had abnormal readings on electrocochleographic tests. And not just some of them-all of them did.
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May 2009The observation led a team of researchers in the university’s Department of Otolaryngology to do a retrospective study, led by H. Alexander Arts, MD, Professor of Neurosurgery and Otolaryngology, to look more closely. They validated the trend, and found that patients who had the disorder corrected reverted to normal readings on the tests conducted during surgery.
Abnormal readings in electrocochleographic (ECoG) tests, which measure the ear’s electrical response to sound, have traditionally been identified with Ménière’s disease, a disorder than can cause vertigo, buzzing in the ear, and hearing loss. But researchers say the findings might be cause for ear surgeons to think twice when they see a patient with these abnormal readings.