Int. Adv. Otol. 2010; 6(3) 342-346

Serum viral and toxoplasma gondii antibody titers in vestibular neuronitis
Ozge Yilmaz-Kusbeci, Orhan Cem Aktepe, Ozlem Miman, Murat Cem Miman, Afyon Kocatepe University School of Medicine, Turkey

Objective: To evaluate patients with vestibular neuronitis serologically and to try to demonstrate that the viral infectious agents or toxoplasma gondii causes the disorder. 

Materials and methods: The study was conducted on 38 vestibular neuronitis and 30 age-matched control patients whose only health problem was headache due to rhinosinusitis and tension type headache. Serum IgM antibody levels of herpes simplex virus, varicella-zoster virus, cytomegalovirus, EB virus, adenovirus, influenza virus, parainfluenza virus, mumps virus, rubella virus, measles virus, respiratory syncytial virus, and toxoplasma gondii were measured by ELISA method. The rates of antivirus and anti–T. gondii IgM antibody positivities between the vestibular neuronitis patient group and the control group were compared by using chi-square test.

Results: Nineteen out of 38 vestibular neuronitis cases and 9 out of 30 control cases showed significant change in serum viral IgM antibody level. But there was no case which showed high serum toxoplasma gondii IgM antibody There was no statistically significant difference between the patients and the control group (p=0.157). When the viruses were compared between each other there were no statistically significant difference between the herpes simplex virus, EB virus, adenovirus, influenza virus, mumps virus, and respiratory syncytial virus (p=0.37, p=0.99, p=0.99, p=0.78, p=0.99, p=0.25, respectively).

Conclusions: Althogh viral infection of the vestibular nerve and/or labyrinth is believed to be the most common cause of vestibular neuronitis, our study showed that serological evaluation is not a useful method to identify viral agents and also it is difficult to say that toxoplasma gondii could play an important role in the aetiology of vestibular neuronitis.