Abstract
In an attempt to determine if the occurrence of an attack of Ménière's disease is definitely influenced by meteorological phenomena, an epidemiological survey was conducted in 4 cities in the north-eastern and south-western regions of Japan, namely Sapporo, Tachikawa, Gifu and Fukuoka.
The subjects involved in this study were 64 patients with Meniere's disease who had a vertiginous attack during a 1-month period from April 1 through April 30, 1977 and then visited any of 6 participating hospitals in the above-mentioned 4 cities by May 10 of the same year. Included in the study subjects were only those who could state exactly the date and the time of the day of occurrence of the attack and who, at the time of examination, demonstrated nystagmus or deviation of labyrinthine origin in addition to progression of hearing impairment.
On April 12 the vertiginous attack was noted to have struck all the 4 regions ; on April 1, 6, 9 and 16 the attack occurred in 3 of the 4 regions. On all these days there was a large trough of atmospheric pressure over the most part of the Japanese Islands. Conversely, on April 2, 18, 23, 29 and 30 on which all the 4 regions were attack-free the Japanese nation, for the most part, was under a high atmospheric pressure.
These findings led to the conclusion that the attack of Ménière's disease is apt to occur when barometric pressure is low, while it is of rather infrequent occurrence in the presence of a high barometric pressure. This is supported by mean atmospheric pressure chart.
