HASHIMOTO'S THYROIDITIS AND VESTIBULAR DYSFUNCTION

The aim of this review was to analyze the existing literature concerning the relationship between Hashimoto’s thyroiditis (HT) and vestibular dysfunction. Methods: We used electronic databases (PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Library) to search and collect all published articles about association between HT and vestibular disorders. Results: Several observational and retrospective studies have postulated a relationship of thyroid autoimmunity and vestibular disorders. In most cases, an appropriate control group was lacking and the impact of thyroid functional status could not precisely be established. In recent years, two prospective well-designed studies, have provided convincing evidence that the association is not random. One research reported that patients with Ménière Disease (MD) had a significantly higher prevalence of positive anti-thyroid autoantibody as compared to healthy control groups. Moreover, more than half MD patients had either positive anti-thyroid or non-organ-specific autoantibody titers compared to less than 30% of both patients with unilateral vestibular paresis without cochlear involvement and healthy controls. Another study found that patients with Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo (BPPV) had significantly higher serum TSH and anti-thyroid autoantibody levels than healthy controls. Additionally, almost one fifth of euthyroid patients with HT had signs of BPPV. Conclusions: The published results indicate that patients with MD or BPPV are potential candidates to develop HT mutually Thus, in HT patients the presence of even slight symptoms or signs potentially related to vestibular lesions should be carefully investigated.