ASSESSMENT OF SERUM ANTIBODIES IN PATIENTS WITH RAPIDLY PROGRESSIVE SENSORINEURAL HEARING-LOSS AND MENIERES-DISEASE

The immunoreactivity of sera from patients with rapidly progressive se nsorineural hearing loss (SNHL) or Meniere's disease with bovine inner ear material was determined using the Western blot technique. Patient s with other otologic conditions, autoimmune disorders, or arthritic d isorders and age-matched randomly chosen patients with no hearing comp laints served as controls. Twenty-two percent of the patients with bil ateral rapidly progressive SNHL and 30% of the patients with Meniere's disease had antibodies that reacted with a 68 kd antigen in the inner ear material. In the control groups, the incidence of reactivity was 5.0% (P<.001). When the results of this study were compiled with data collected previously, it was found that of 279 patients with bilateral rapidly progressive SNHL, 90 (32%) were positive with the 68 kd prote in. Thus, the anti-68 kd antibody may provide a good marker for an imm une etiology of these patients' hearing loss.