Meniere's disease (MD) is a disease of the inner ear of unknown origin. There exist several hypotheses regarding possible reasons for this disease; one idea is that the pressure in the inner ear is too high, and another idea is that the blood flow in the inner ear may not be sufficient. Several drugs can be used to lower blood pressure, and as a consequence they may reduce blood flow. Examples of such drugs are the widely used beta-blockers and the diuretics. We propose to compare use of these drugs between patients with a new diagnosis of MD and patients without MD to explore whether use of beta-blockers or diuretics may alter the risk developing MD. Since beta-blockers and diuretics are widely used, this possible drug effect is of substantial public health interest.
MD is a disease of the inner ear. There is only limited data on the epidemiology of MD and on the underlying pathology which is still poorly understood.
Possible causes of MD may be aberrant fluid homeostasis resulting in a high pressure and endolymphatic hydrops or in reduced perfusion of the inner ear. Beta-blockers and diuretics are both used to reduce blood pressure and therefore may influence blood flow. To our knowledge no previous studies have explored the association between use of beta-blockers or diuretics and the risk of incident MD.
In this large observational case-control analysis we plan to explore the association between use of beta-blockers and diuretics and the occurrence of MD using conditional logistic regression analyses to calculate odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs).
Christoph Meier - Chief Investigator - University of Basel
Saskia Bruderer - Corresponding Applicant - University of Basel
Daniel Bodmer - Collaborator - University of Basel
Nadja Alexandra Stohler - Collaborator - University of Basel
Susan Jick - Collaborator - BCDSP - Boston Collaborative Drug Surveillance Program