Nehzat Koohi

Accurate diagnosis of acute vertigo (AV) in emergency settings is crucial due to varied underlying causes. Challenges include differentiating non-life-threatening conditions, like vestibular migraine, from severe issues, such as stroke. The “TiTrATE - STANDING Adapted” algorithm was created to help non-specialist emergency physicians diagnose posterior circulation strokes in AV patients, overcoming the limitations of current practices that require specialized knowledge and equipment. This study involved a prospective validation and retrospective analysis of 67 patients at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery and University College London Hospital. Patients underwent objective oculomotor assessments through video oculography and pure tone audiometry, conducted by an experienced audiologist in the acute stage. The accuracy of the “TiTrATE - STANDING Adapted” algorithm was compared to final diagnoses made by specialists, which included a comprehensive review of medical histories, objective test results, and imaging studies. The “TiTrATE - STANDING Adapted” algorithm demonstrated a sensitivity of 90%, with low specificity (57.9%), resulting in a high rate of false positives (24 out of 67) and a global accuracy of 62.7%. Conditions such as vestibular migraine and chronic vascular issues (e.g., orthostatic hypotension) were often misclassified, impacting the overall specificity. Integrating TiTrATE, HINTS Plus, and STANDING into a single diagnostic algorithm for acute vertigo in the ED could enhance accuracy and streamline decision-making. However, the combined model must perform at least as well as its individual components. Key improvements needed before implementation include adding vestibular migraine criteria, refining stroke exclusion guidelines, and ongoing validation to boost diagnostic precision and patient outcomes.

Background: Evidence supports that vestibular rehabilitation therapy (VRT) improves the static and dynamic balance of survivors of stroke, yet VRT is rarely included in stroke rehabilitation guidelines. We aim to answer the question: What are the effects of VRT or dual‐task training (DTT) on balance and gait for reducing the risk of falls among survivors of late subacute and chronic stroke? Methods: Following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta‐Analysis Statement guidelines, electronic databases PubMed, EMBASE, MEDLINE, Web of Science, and Scopus for English were searched to identify randomized controlled trials published within the past 10 years in the English language, investigating VRT for patients with late subacute and chronic stroke. Results: Eleven studies (n=509 participants) were included in the systematic review, and 10 studies (n=413 participants) were included in a meta‐analysis. The average participant age was 60.9 years, with 62.11% male. On average, 36 months had passed since stroke onset. The pooled effect standardized mean difference suggests that VRT has a significantly large effect for improving balance (standardized mean difference, 0.64 [95% CI, 0.44–0.85], P P =0.002). Dual‐task training (DTT) moderately improved gait (standardized mean difference, 0.46 [95% CI, 0.18–0.74], P =0.001), with greater benefits from DTT compared with single‐task training. Conclusions: Despite substantial heterogeneity across studies, the evidence supports that VRT, can probably improve balance, and DTT may improve gait outcomes among survivors of late subacute and chronic stroke. An optimal program for this population should focus on balance and DTT with subcomponents of gait and strength training. Further research is required to determine the optimal number of weeks, sessions/week, and duration (minutes) of VRT sessions. Registration: URL: https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO/ ; Unique identifier: CRD42023450254.

Acute vertigo or dizziness is a frequent presentation to the emergency department (ED), making up between 2.1% and 4.4% of all consultations. Given the nature of the ED where the priority is triage, diagnostic delays and misdiagnoses are common, with as many as a third of vertebrobasilar strokes presenting with acute vertigo or dizziness being missed. Here, we review diagnostic errors identified in the evaluation and treatment of the acutely dizzy patient and discuss strategies to overcome them. Lessons learned include focusing on structured history taking, asking about timing and triggers to inform a targeted examination, assessing subtle ocular motor findings (e.g., by use of HINTS(+)), and avoiding overreliance on brain imaging (including early magnetic resonance imaging including diffusion-weighted sequences [DWI-MRI]). Importantly, up to 20% of DWI-MRI may be false negatives if obtained within the first 24–48 h after symptom onset. Likewise, overreliance on focal neurologic findings to confirm a stroke diagnosis should be avoided because isolated dizziness, vertigo, or even unsteadiness may be the only symptoms in some patients with vertebrobasilar stroke. Furthermore, in patients with triggered episodic vestibular symptoms provocation maneuvers should be preferred over HINTS(+), and a potential diagnosis of stroke should not be immediately dismissed in younger patients presenting with a headache (where migraine may be more common), but the possibility of a vertebral artery dissection should be further evaluated. Importantly, moderate training of non-experts allows for significant improvement in diagnostic accuracy in the acutely dizzy patient and thus should be prioritized.

Primary mitochondrial diseases, with diverse systemic manifestations, often present with auditory impairments due to mitochondrial dysfunction. This study provides an in-depth exploration of auditory deficits in primary mitochondrial diseases, highlighting the impact of various pathogenic variants on both cochlea and neural/central auditory functions. An observational study involving 72 adults with primary mitochondrial diseases was conducted. Participants underwent extensive audiological evaluations including pure-tone audiometry, tympanometry, acoustic reflex thresholds, quick speech-in-noise test, listening in spatialized noise-sentences test, auditory-evoked brainstem responses and distortion product otoacoustic emissions. Multivariate analysis of covariance and logistic regression analyses assessed the influence of various pathogenic DNA variants, accounting for age, cognitive status via the Montreal Cognitive Assessment and disease severity through the Newcastle Mitochondrial Disease Adult Scale. Participants with the pathogenic m.3243A>G/T variants (m.3243A>G n = 40; m.3243A>T n = 1) exhibited significant elevations in pure-tone audiometry thresholds, especially at high frequencies, suggesting cochlea involvement. Notably, the listening in spatialized noise-sentences test showed significant spatial processing deficits in the m.3243A>G/T group, possibly indicating a unique mutation-specific impact on central auditory processing. Auditory-evoked brainstem response results highlighted a higher likelihood of auditory brainstem response abnormalities in this group, further substantiating neural/central auditory pathway involvement. This study emphasizes the heterogeneous nature of hearing impairment in primary mitochondrial diseases, with a genotype–phenotype correlation, particularly in the m.3243A>G/T group. These insights advocate for personalized, genotype-specific auditory assessments and targeted management strategies. Conventional hearing aids and cochlear implants are ineffective for those with central auditory dysfunctions related to mitochondrial mutations. There is an urgent need for innovative rehabilitation strategies catering for both cochlear and neural/central auditory pathways.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2024.1406916.].

Background: For adults with auditory processing disorder (APD), listening and communicating can be difficult, potentially leading to social isolation, depression, employment difficulties and certainly reducing the quality of life. Despite existing practice guidelines suggesting treatments, the efficacy of these interventions remains uncertain due to a lack of comprehensive reviews. This systematic review and meta-analysis aim to establish current evidence on the effectiveness of interventions for APD in adults, addressing the urgent need for clarity in the field.Methods: Following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines, we conducted a systematic search across MEDLINE (Ovid), Embase (Ovid), Web of Science and Scopus, focusing on intervention studies involving adults with APD. Studies that met the inclusion criteria were grouped according to intervention with a meta-analysis only conducted where intervention, study design and outcome measure were comparable.Results: Out of 1,618 screened records, 13 studies were included, covering auditory training (AT), low-gain hearing aids (LGHA), and personal remote microphone systems (PRMS). Our analysis revealed: AT, Mixed results with some improvements in speech intelligibility and listening ability, indicating potential benefits but highlighting the need for standardized protocols; LGHA, The included studies demonstrated significant improvements in monaural low redundancy speech testing (p < 0.05), suggesting LGHA could enhance speech perception in noisy environments. However, limitations include small sample sizes and potential biases in study design. PRMS, Demonstrated the most consistent evidence of benefit, significantly improving speech testing results, with no additional benefit from combining PRMS with other interventions.Discussion: PRMS presents the most evidence-supported intervention for adults with APD, although further high-quality research is crucial for all intervention types. The establishment and implementation of standardized intervention protocols alongside rigorously validated outcome measures will enable a more evidence-based approach to managing APD in adults.

Recent evidence shows that it is possible to identify the elements responsible for sensorineural hearing loss, such as pro-inflammatory cytokines and macrophages, by performing perilymph sampling. However, current studies have only focused on the diagnosis of such as otologic conditions. Hearing loss is a feature of certain neuroinflammatory disorders such as multiple sclerosis, and sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) is widely detected in Alzheimer’s disease. Although the environment of the inner ear is highly regulated, there are several communication pathways between the perilymph of the inner ear and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). Thus, examination of the perilymph may help understand the mechanism behind the hearing loss observed in certain neuroinflammatory and neurodegenerative diseases. Herein, we review the constituents of CSF and perilymph, the anatomy of the inner ear and its connection with the brain. Then, we discuss the relevance of perilymph sampling in neurology. Currently, perilymph sampling is only performed during surgical procedures, but we hypothesize a simplified and low-invasive technique that could allow sampling in a clinical setting with the same ease as performing an intratympanic injection under direct visual check. The use of this modified technique could allow for perilymph sampling in people with hearing loss and neuroinflammatory/neurodegenerative disorders and clarify the relationship between these conditions; in fact, by measuring the concentration of neuroinflammatory and/or neurodegenerative biomarkers and those typically expressed in the inner ear in aging SNHL, it could be possible to understand if SNHL is caused by aging or neuroinflammation.

The COVID-19 pandemic dramatically changed health service delivery with vulnerable patients advised to isolate and appointments provided virtually. This change affected recruitment into an observational cohort study, undertaken at a single site, where participants with mitochondrial disorders were due to have specialist hospital-based audiovestibular tests. To ensure study viability, the study protocol was amended to allow home-based assessment for vulnerable participants. Here, we report outcomes of an online survey of participants who underwent home-based assessment, related to the experience, perceived benefits, and drawbacks of home audiovestibular assessments. Seventeen participants underwent home-based neuro-otological assessment, due to the need to isolate during COVID-19. Following the assessment, 16 out of 17 participants completed an anonymised online survey to share their experiences of the specialist home-based assessment. One hundred percent of participants rated the home-based assessment ‘very positively’ and would recommend it to others. Sixty-three percent rated it better than attending hospital outpatient testing settings. The benefits included no travel burden (27%) and reduced stress (13%). A majority reported no drawbacks in having the home visit. The patient-reported feedback suggests a person-centred approach where audiovestibular assessments are conducted in their homes is feasible for patients, acceptable and seen as beneficial to a vulnerable group of patients.