A systematic review and meta-analysis of extratympanic electrocochleography in Meniere's disease diagnosis

Objective: Determine whether a combination of electrocochleography determined summating/action potential (SP/AP) ratio and other audiological measurements has greater sensitivity and specificity than that achieved with electrocochleography SP/AP ratio alone in diagnosing definite Meniere's Disease. Design: Systematic review and meta-analysis. Study sample: Pubmed, Cochrane Library, and Web of Science were searched using search terms "electrocochleography", "ECochG, ,"ECoG", "Meniere's Disease", and "Idiopathic Endolymphatic Hydrops". Inclusion criteria were extratympanic electrocochleography methodology, English language publication between January 2002 and December 2017, and the 1995 American Academy of Otolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery Meniere's disease diagnostic criteria. Five articles satisfied inclusion criteria and were sufficiently detailed for aggregate quantitative analysis of SP/AP ratio (315 subjects) and combination audiological measures (113 subjects). Results: The diagnostic sensitivity and specificity of the SP/AP amplitude ratio was 47.6% and 83.8% and of combination diagnostic measures 63.5% and 89.3%, respectively. Point estimates of sensitivity (p = 0.248) and specificity (p = 0.969) and the summary Receiver Operator Characteristic Curve (p = 0.407) were not statistically significant. Conclusion: Statistically, combination diagnostic measures do not result in greater accuracy of definite Meniere's disease diagnosis compared to the SP/AP amplitude ratio alone. However, given the small sample size further studies are recommended to arrive at a definitive conclusion.