Jp. Harris et D. Aframian, ROLE OF AUTOIMMUNITY IN CONTRALATERAL DELAYED ENDOLYMPHATIC HYDROPS, The American journal of otology, 15(6), 1994, pp. 710-716
Contralateral delayed endolymphatic hydrops is described as the develo
pment of fluctuating hearing loss and episodic vertigo in a normal ear
years following sensorineural hearing loss in the opposite ear. This
condition is a variant of delayed endolymphatic hydrops in which new s
ymptoms of severe episodic vertigo develop years later in an ear that
has lost most or all of its hearing. The possible etiologies of these
two conditions are unknown and may be different. This report presents
seven cases of the contralateral form of this disease and experimental
evidence that suggests that these patients may be suffering from the
initiation of an autoimmune event directed against the remaining inner
ear. In Western blot analysis, their serum was reacted against cow co
chlear inner ear antigen preparations, and six of the seven cases had
serum antibodies directed against a 68 or a 35-36 kilodalton (kd) mole
cular weight antigen in contrast to three of 43 normal controls (p < .
001 Fisher's exact test), the significance of which had previously bee
n reported for autoimmune inner ear disease.