Meniere's Australia

03/09/2025

Just out, but nothing new!

Synergistic role of blood-labyrinth barrier permeability and endolymphatic hydrops: a comparative perspective in Ménière’s disease and vestibular migraine.

Conclusion: Delayed gadolinium-enhanced MRI of the inner ear facilitates the differentiation between MD and VM. The combination of EH, SIR, and c-SIR AI demonstrates excellent diagnostic performance. Notably, elevated SIR shows the strongest correlation with high-frequency hearing impairment, while cochlear EH primarily contributes to low- and mid-frequency hearing loss. By integrating imaging findings with audiological profiles, clinicians can accurately characterize cochlear pathology, enabling the development of tailored treatment strategies.

https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/neurology/articles/10.3389/fneur.2025.1667277/full?fbclid=IwY2xjawMkwddleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBicmlkETFGcTFsc1Z4ckxWSE9iMGJWAR5Ii7xAr20AfjU_m0gOQXHCLKR8zUfrEDC3RhU0xAOJhroYX9GZyiUx3mXd6g_aem_Ull6c6GkdOfEHRMrWv4h4A

ObjectiveThis study compares the delayed gadolinium-enhanced MRI characteristics of Ménière’s disease (MD) and vestibular migraine (VM) to develop a multipar...

02/09/2025

Subsets? Nope...

1. Clinical Subtyping of Meniere’s Disease (Phillips et al., 2018)

2. Meniere’s disease: new guidelines, subtypes, imaging, and more (Justin Hoskin, 2022)

3. Future Directions in Meniere Diagnosis and Treatment (Zhang et al., 2022)

4. A Modern Framework for Treating Meniere’s Disease (Chari et al., 2025)

01/09/2025

Gibson at work - revolutionising Meniere's mechanism theory and 2,500 cochlea implants later....

01/09/2025

Spring and Gibson publication Journal of Vestibular Research 2024

01/09/2025

The great Prof Lindsay Wing at Sydney University

One of the only ENTs who knew that dendritic and antigen presenting cells under the tongue influence recruitment, activation and cytokine release to modify the T cell response at the endolymphatic sac - back in 1979!

30/08/2025

Just published -

Yuan VG, Xia A and Santa Maria PL (2025) “Immunological mechanisms in Meniere’s disease”. Front. Immunol. 16:1639916. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2025.1639916.

Simplified by Prof Wing 1997 and updated by Spring with Gibson's vertigo mechanism's - 2024-5, - Barany, Sweden; Politzer, Rome; Prosper Meniere’s Society, Austria; Meniere’s International, Shanghai and ARO Florida.

Meniere’s disease (MD) is a chronic, relapsing inner ear disorder characterized by episodes of vertigo, fluctuating sensorineural hearing loss, tinnitus, and...

28/08/2025

Stephen Spring’s Meniere Moment…

Did you know a subset of people with MD might have greater cardiac risk? This group sets out to explain the MD vascular phenotype…

https://www.beneventum.it/nuovosito/9-10-11-settembre-2024-international-course-of-audiological-and-vestibular-medicine-gianni-modugno-i-edition-2024/

27/08/2025

“Changes in the endolymphatic sac with CT bio-markers in MD, Robles - Bolivar et al, August 2025”

Nice publication and a little story…

In 1995, the Australian Government’s expert group on MD introduced its own legal definition of MD rather than rely on the then AAO-NHSF criteria for definite MD according to AAO-HNS guidelines which had no requirement for objective testing for endolymphatic hydrops.

Also at about that time, the now defunct NSW Meniere’s Patient Support group held patient/doctor workshops in Sydney’s Mitchell Library. Australian Professors Wing and Gibson, both from Sydney University at the time taught about the importance of the endolymphatic sac in MD. At the time, Gibson taught clinicians from all over about TTEchoG and its use in detecting hydropic ears.

Wing. with nearly 30 years as head of ENT at Royal Hobart Hospital and expert in ENT immunology proposed 6 basic biological processes in degeneration of the endolymphatic sac by identifying predominant subsets. Through the work of Gibson/Arenberg, Derebery, Salt, Harris, Rask Andersen, Danckwardt-Lillieström and many others, it was clear to them at that time a degenerative endolymphatic sac was front and centre to most MD.

Wing’s case studies showed deteriorating stages, which in turn generally correlated with changes to altered systemic immune profiles, cytokine expression and other markers which he treated accordingly, mostly with great success. He distinguished initiating factors (that set up the hydropic ear) and regulatory factors (that gave rise to various symptoms once the endolymphatic sac is compromised). He was 30 years ahead of his time. Like Prosper himself, he was also ridiculed, even though he was ENT course director because immunology is not taught to ENTs.

With MRI and Gd replacing TTEchoG, maybe this CT scan technique might one day, maybe within a few decades, become the new normal objectively assessing MD.

Purpose To estimate the prevalence of endolymphatic sac hypoplasia (EShp)—a proposed specific finding in Ménière’s disease (MD) that defines an endophenotype ch...

26/08/2025

Australia used to lead the world with Meniere's support, diagnoses and treatments. Now its not even on the agenda!

13TH - 15TH NOVEMBER 2025HOTEL GRAND CHANCELLOR HOBART Frontiers: the Art, Science and Future of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery is a biennial conference sponsored by Passe & Williams Foundation that brings together scientists and clinical practitioners to discuss latest research and clinical n...

25/08/2025

IMPORTANT NOTICE:

For patients with their doctors in USA following genetic testing and subset immunotherapy for MD, Trump’s tariffs may impact your MD treatment programme and the issues are being worked through.

Australia Post has issued the following statement: -

Temporary suspension of postal services to the US
,
As a result of the recently introduced changes to the import tariff requirements set out in US Executive Order 14324, Australia Post has joined a number of international postal operators to temporarily suspend partial postal services to the United States (US) and Puerto Rico, effective immediately until further notice.

This decision has been made to ensure compliance with the new US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) requirements. Specifically, the requirement for duties and taxes to be prepaid on all shipments prior to their arrival in the US. The key changes are as follows:

1. Suspension of the de minimis USD$800 threshold exemption.

2. New mandatory customs declaration requirements.

3. Duties for imported goods to be collected prior to goods entering the US

21/08/2025

MD in NZ - ORL 2025
Two presentations, “The Bill Gibson Basic Mechanism of Vertigo Attacks in Meniere's Disease with Explanatory Animation for Patients” and “Personalised Medicine in the Era of the Genome - Everything New is Old” have been accepted by the scientific committee for the NZ ORL conference 6-9 October 2025.

On behalf of the Organising Committee it is our pleasure to extend an invitation to you to attend the 78th Annual General and Scientific Meeting of the New Zealand Society of Otolaryngology, Head and...

18/08/2025

VM or MD? Diagnoses ‘suspected VM’ proposed…

Vestibular migraine (VM) and Meniere’s disease (MD) are spontaneous episodic vestibular syndromes and often present with overlapping features, making clinical differentiation challenging. Study aimed to identify key features distinguishing VM from MD and investigate discrepancies between expert diagnosis and International Classification of Vestibular Disorders (ICVD) criteria for VM. It identified 7 clinical variables distinguishing VM from MD which share overlapping features. Diagnostic ambiguity is common, particularly in cases not meeting ICVD criteria which support a new ‘suspected VM’ category for patients with atypical presentations not meeting ICVD criteria.

More confusion: Australian Government legal definition vs ICVD vs Barany vs AAOHNS?

Background Vestibular migraine (VM) and Menière’s disease (MD) are spontaneous episodic vestibular syndromes and often present with overlapping features, making clinical differentiation challenging. This study aimed to (1) identify key features distinguishing VM from MD and (2) investigate discre...