Adrenergic innervation of blood vessels. A fluorescence microscopic study of the eighth nerve and inner ear structures in man.

Fluorescence microscopy was used to examine the perivascular adrenergic innervation in the eighth nerve and vestibular end-organ specimens from 13 patients with otoneurological diseases. It was observed that all the blood vessels accompanying the cochlear and vestibular nerves from patients with acoustic neuroma or Meniere's disease were devoid of specifically fluorescent fibers, while several adrenergic fibers were seen around the arterioles accompanying the inferior vestibular nerve from the patient with sudden deafness.