Meniere's Disease and the Peak Audiogram

• Pure tone audiograms of 300 patients with Meniere's disease and 400 patients without Meniere's disease were compared for prevalence of a high-frequency peak configuration. Prevalence rate of 42% for a peak audiogram was observed in ears diagnosed with Meniere's disease compared with 6% for patients with cochlear hearing loss not attributed to Meniere's disease, and 7% for normal hearing patients. Prevalence of the peak audiogram in patients with Meniere's disease was significantly greater than either of the patient groups without Meniere's disease. Prevalence of peak audiogram was affected by duration and bilaterality of Meniere's disease, but not by the degree of hearing loss. A classification system is proposed for describing the peak audiogram based on the severity of the peak configuration and the degree of hearing loss. (Arch Otolaryngol1982;108:555-559)