Pressure test for the diagnosis of Menière's disease.

In the last 15 years, a pressure chamber able to generate negative air pressure has been used to treat patients with Menière's disease. In this study we sought to clarify whether the underpressure chamber can be used to diagnose Menière's disease. We studied 45 ears from patients with neurotological diseases. The subjects were placed supine in a soundproof pressure chamber. The pressure was first decreased to -500 mmH2O, and after 5 min to -700 mmH2O. The pressure was kept at this level for another 5 min and then increased to 0 mmH2O. This procedure was done three times in succession. While the chamber pressure was below 0 mmH2O, the subjects were instructed to abstain from actively equilibrating middle ear pressure. When the chamber pressure was raised to 0 mmH2O, they were instructed to equilibrate middle ear pressure, and if necessary Politzerization or catheterization of the Eustachian tube was done. As a result, hearing was improved after this procedure only in patients with Menière's disease (50%) and/or cochlear Menière's disease (32%) in which endolymphatic hydrops was suspected.