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DOI 10.1007/s00405-013-2786-4
OTOLOGY
Achamma Balraj
Abstract Migrainous vertigo is a common cause of diz- different between the two groups. Flunarizine (10 mg) is
ziness presenting to an otorhinolaryngology/otoneurology effective in patients with migrainous vertigo who suffer
clinic. Although it causes a substantial burden to the from considerable vestibular symptoms.
individual and society there are no randomized controlled
trails on prophylactic medication for this condition. Flu- Keywords Flunarizine Migrainous vertigo
narizine, a calcium channel blocker has been used effec- Episodic recurrent vertigo Migraine disorder
tively in both migraine and vestibular conditions. This Prophylaxis
randomized control trial was undertaken in a tertiary aca-
demic referral center to evaluate the efficacy of flunarizine
in patients with migrainous vertigo when compared to non- Introduction
specific vestibular treatment of betahistine and vestibular
exercises. The effect of flunarizine on two particularly Patients with migraine often complain of dizziness or
disabling symptoms of vertigo and headache was studied. vertigo during or in between attacks. Various terminologies
A total of 48 patients who were diagnosed with definitive have evolved to describe this condition such as migraine-
migrainous vertigo completed the study of 12 weeks associated vertigo, migraine-related vestibulopathy, ves-
duration. Patients in arm A received 10-mg flunarizine tibular migraine, or migrainous vertigo [14].
daily along with betahistine 16 mg and paracetamol 1 gm Migrainous vertigo (MV) can be defined as a vestibular
during episodes, and arm B received only betahistine and syndrome caused by migraine that can present as sponta-
paracetamol during episodes. Symptom scores were noted neous or positional vertigo lasting seconds to days,
at the start of the study and at the end of 12 weeks. Ana- accompanied by migrainous symptoms [1]. Like migraine,
lysis of the frequency of vertiginous episodes showed a MV is a diagnosis by exclusion and cannot be diagnosed by
significant difference between arm A and arm B specific tests. An operational clinical criterion (definite and
(p = 0.010) and improvement in severity of vertigo probable) has been proposed based on the IHS classifica-
between the two groups (p = 0.046). Headache frequency tion of headaches [1]. Various authors have emphasized the
and severity did not improve to a significant degree in arm migrainous origin of episodic vertigo that can occur even in
A as compared to arm B. The main side effects were the absence of headache [1, 5, 6]. Vestibular migraine has
weight gain and somnolence and this was not significantly been recognized as a separate entity from migraine with
brainstem aura (earlier basilar migraine) only recently. A
new set of diagnostic criterion has been proposed jointly by
A. Lepcha (&) A. M. Augustine A. K. Tyagi A. Balraj
Department of ENT, Unit IV, Christian Medical College and the Committee for Classification of Vestibular Disorders of
Hospital, Vellore 632004, Tamilnadu, India the Barany Society and the Migraine Classification Sub-
e-mail: anjalilepcha@yahoo.com committee of the International Headache Society (IHS) [7].
A diagnosis of vestibular migraine is considered in the
S. Amalanathan
Department of ENT, Indira Gandhi Medical College and presence of vestibular symptoms of any type, history of
Research Institute, Puducherry 605609, India migraine and a temporal association between the two, all
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other causes of vestibular symptoms having been ruled out Ear, nose, throat and neurotological examination was
[8]. done followed by specific audiovestibular investigations
Vestibular symptoms in MV can be quite debilitating, and imaging when required. Fifty-two consecutive patients
but the current evidence for both acute and prophylactic between the age of 18 and 75 who were diagnosed as MV
treatment consists of a few studies on the successful use of based on the Neuhauser et al. [1] criteria were enrolled in
prophylactic anti-migraine medications [9]. Earlier studies this study after they gave an informed written consent.
have been non-randomized trials in the western population Patients with associated benign paroxysmal positional
[10]. Flunarizine is a selective calcium channel blocker vertigo, Menieres disease, chronic discharging ear, past
indicated as a maintenance treatment for classical and history of ear surgery, profound hearing loss, stroke,
common migraine [1113]. The side effects of flunarizine intracranial tumors or those on calcium channel blockers
are minimal and infrequent, and good compliance has been for hypertension were excluded from the study.
reported because it is taken as a once a day dose. The main On the assumption that specific prophylactic treatment
side effects of weight gain and drowsiness are similar to for migraine would reduce symptoms by 80 % and that
propranolol, another drug with proven efficacy used in symptomatic treatment in the control arm would reduce
migraine prophylaxis [14, 15]. Although extrapyramidal symptoms by 40 %, an estimated 24 patients per arm
side effects have been reported earlier in calcium channel would be required to provide a result with a 95 % confi-
blockers (CCB) including flunarizine, more recent studies dence interval for a power of 80 %. Informed consent was
have not shown an association between parkinsonism and obtained from all patients prior to their recruitment.
CCB [16, 17]. The efficacy of flunarizine in migraine Patients were subsequently block randomized (blocks of 4)
headache prophylaxis has been confirmed in both open and into two treatment arms, A and B using computer-gener-
controlled trials [18]. ated random numbers. Allocation of patients into the two
A search of English literature showed no randomized arms was done by the primary investigator based on the
controlled studies evaluating the effectiveness of flunari- computer-generated numbers. Initial evaluation and fol-
zine with respect to MV. Hence, the purpose of this study low-up of these patients were done by clinicians working in
was to evaluate the effectiveness of flunarizine in the the unit including the primary investigator.
prophylaxis of MV in a cohort of patients. Patients in treatment arm A received 10-mg flunarizine,
once daily at bed time. Betahistine 16 mg thrice a day for 48 h
was given with the onset of a vertiginous attack, and para-
Materials and methods cetamol 1 g was taken for acute attacks of headaches. Patients
in treatment arm B received symptomatic treatment with
This study was carried out in the audiovestibular clinic at betahistine and paracetamol like in arm A. Both groups were
our tertiary care referral hospital after obtaining clearance instructed to carry out active vestibular exercises. All patients
from the institutional review board and ethical committees were reviewed at the end of 12 weeks and their symptoms of
and done in accordance with the ethical standards laid vertigo and headache were reassessed using another ques-
down in the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki. Patients who tionnaire. Patients were not shown their previous scores and
attended this clinic between July 2010 to August 2011 with asked to mark based on recall of symptoms in the preceding
complaints of headache and vertigo were assessed using a 12 weeks. An additional score was added to evaluate the
structured, pretested questionnaire (Appendix). This improvement of symptoms. For reporting improvement of
self-reported questionnaire was used to obtain information severity of symptoms the patients chose 1 out of 5 scores.
about the type and duration of headache, aura if present and Little improvement scores were 02, marked improvement
vestibular symptoms. It also assessed the severity and scores were 3 and 4 where 0 was no improvement, 1 was mild
frequency of headache and vertigo: the two most disabling improvement, 2 was moderate improvement, 3 was excellent
symptoms of MV. A numbering system was used, based on improvement and 4 was completely asymptomatic. Any
patients perception of frequency and severity of headache adverse effects were also noted.
and vertigo symptoms. The patient chose 1 score out of 6 The results were analysed using SPSS version 16.0.
scores for frequency of symptoms. High-frequency scores Tests of significance were done using Fishers exact test
were 14 (where score 1was[5 episodes/week, 2 was 34/ and Chi-square test.
week, 3 was 1/week, 4 was 23/month,) low-frequency
scores were 56 (where 5 was 23/3 months, 6 was \2/
3 months.) For reporting severity of symptoms, the patient Results
chose 1 out of 5 scores. 1 was extremely mild symptoms, 2
was mild, 3 was moderately severe, 4 was severe and 5 was The demographic profile of the subjects enrolled is given in
extremely severe. Table 1, and age and sex distribution of subjects is given in
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Table 1 Demographic profile of patients in the study age of onset of MV irrespective of gender was 32 years of
Frequency Percentage
age. Figure 1 shows the frequency of associated symptoms
such as visual, olfactory, motor and sensory aura that
Sex occurred along with the MV attacks. Visual aura (experi-
Male 18 34.6 enced in 85.4 % of patients) was the commonest associated
Female 34 65.4 symptom followed by other associated symptoms such as
Total 52 100 phonophobia (75 % of patients) and photophobia (68.8 %
Age of patients), numbness and tingling (31.5 % of patients).
B24 years 12 23.1 Olfactory aura described as a distortion/perceiving strange
2534 years 23 44.2 odors preceding or accompanying an attack was present in
C35 years 17 32.7 20.8 % of patients. Tinnitus was an accompanying symp-
Total 52 100.0 tom in 19 % of patients and a similar number had fluctu-
ating hearing levels during attacks. Decreased levels of
vigilance (described by patients as being sleepy/foggy and
Table 2 Age and sex distribution of subjects in the treatment arm unclear headed) were experienced by 41.6 % and motor
and control arm
weakness by 18.8 % of patients. Dizziness with headaches
Treatment arm Control arm Total p value was experienced by 79 % of patients and 66 % had asso-
(Arm A) (Arm B) ciated imbalance during attacks.
Sex Headache lasted less than an hour in 18 (34.6 %)
Male 10 8 18 0.77 patients and in 17 (32.7 %), it lasted more than 24 h.
Female 16 18 34 Headaches of at least moderate to severe intensity were
Total 26 26 52 reported in 77 % of subjects.
Age
Of the 52 patients initially enrolled, 48 completed the
B24 years 6 6 12 0.28
study. One patient from Arm A and three patients from Arm
2534 years 14 9 23
B were lost to follow-up even after numerous attempts were
made to contact them both via telephone as well as by post.
C35years 6 11 17
Therefore, 25 patients in Arm A completed the study and 23
Total 26 26 52
in Arm B. Table 3 shows vertigo and headache symptoms at
3 months of follow-up in the treatment and control arms.
Table 2. There was no statistical difference between the Analysis of the difference in frequency between the epi-
two groups in terms of sex distribution (p = 0.770, Chi- sodes of vertigo before and after treatment in both arms
square test) and age distribution (Chi-square test, showed significant improvement in Arm A compared to
p = 0.28). All 52 patients studied had headache and ver- Arm B (p = 0.010, Fishers exact test). There was an
tigo. There were 23 patients (44 %) between 25 and improvement in the severity of vertigo after treatment in
34 years, and 65 % of subjects were females. The mean arm A compared to Arm B (p = 0.046, Fishers exact test).
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