Introduction

Unilateral vestibular atelectasis (UVA), an entity first described by Merchant and Schuknecht in 1988, has rarely been reported in vivo as of yet. We specify here the clinical characteristics of 22 patients diagnosed with UVA.

Materials and methods

Patients with a radiological diagnosis of UVA who underwent delayed inner ear MRI were included between April 2017 and January 2020. Full clinical testing including ocular infrared video-oculography, oVEMPs, cVEMPs, vHIT, bithermal caloric testing and auditory testing was performed.

Results

There were 13 men and 9 women, of mean age 58.6 ± 13.7 years. Onset was more frequently sudden (73%) than insidious (27%) though both clinical presentations were reported, and positional vertigo was described in 41% of cases. There were only two (9%) patients reporting Tullio’s phenomenon. Vestibular testing showed that in 90% of cases, there was utricular dysfunction on oVEMP, while in 77% of cases, saccular function was preserved on cVEMP. vHIT showed high-velocity canal function impairment in all 22 patients: 8 patients (36%) had one impaired canal, 5 (23%) had two and 9 (41%) had all three canals affected. Caloric tests found complete unilateral areflexia, in 65% of tested cases, and partial deficiency in 35% of cases. Nine patients (40%) displayed asymmetrical hearing.

Conclusion

We described in this study the various clinical presentations of a disease rarely reported in vivo, UVA. Initial clinical presentation can appear similar to an acute vestibular deficit, a recurrent positional vertigo, or fluctuating dizziness.

中文翻译：

---

单侧前庭肺不张的临床特征。

介绍

单侧前庭肺不张（UVA）是由Merchant和Schuknecht于1988年首次描述的一种实体，迄今尚未在体内报道。我们在这里指定22名被诊断为UVA的患者的临床特征。

材料和方法

在2017年4月至2020年1月之间，接受了延迟内耳MRI诊断为UVA放射学诊断的患者。进行了包括眼红外录像，oVEMP，cVEMP，vHIT，双热热量测试和听觉测试在内的全面临床测试。

结果

男13例，女9例，平均年龄58.6±13.7岁。尽管有两种临床表现均报告为发病，但比隐匿性发作（27％）多为突然发作（73％），在41％的病例中描述为位置性眩晕。只有两名（9％）患者报告了Tullio现象。前庭测试显示，在oVEMP上有90％的患者存在房室功能障碍，而在cVEMP上有77％的患者保留了囊性功能。vHIT在所有22例患者中均显示出快速的运河功能障碍：8例（36％）的患者有1根运河受损，5例（23％）的2例受损，而9例（41％）的3条均受到影响。热量测试发现，在65％的被测病例中有完全的单侧反射消失，在35％的病例中发现了部分虚弱。9名患者（40％）出现听力不对称。

结论

在这项研究中，我们描述了体内很少报道的UVA疾病的各种临床表现。最初的临床表现可能类似于急性前庭缺陷，复发性位置性眩晕或波动性头晕。