<b><i>Background:</i></b> The progression of hearing impairment and the bilateral involvement of Meniere’s disease (MD) may depend on the disease duration and aging. Recent studies reported that MD might involve dysfunction of the microvascular circulation damaged due to inflammatory changes. <b><i>Objectives:</i></b> The aim of this study was to determine that the progress of the MD’s hearing impairment and bilateral disability may be associated with the pathogenesis of several pro-inflammatory processes. <b><i>Patients and Methods:</i></b> We recruited 30 unilateral MD patients (56.8 ± 14.7 years old), 7 bilateral MD patients (65.3 ± 13.9 years old), and 17 age-matched control subjects (53.5 ± 14.4 years old, <i>p</i> &#x3e; 0.05). We measured the plasma vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), plasma interleukin-6 (IL-6), plasma tumor-necrosis factor α (TNFα), and plasma monocyte chemotactic protein-1 (MCP-1). <b><i>Results:</i></b> The bilateral MD group and the unilateral MD group had higher plasma MCP-1 (204.7 ± 41.0 pg/mL and 169.5 ± 32.0 pg/mL) than the control group (149.2 ± 30.7 pg/mL) (<i>p</i> &#x3c; 0.05). There was no significant difference in plasma TNFα, IL-6, and VEGF among 3 groups (<i>p</i> &#x3e; 0.05). There was a strong correlation between the plasma MCP-1 and age in MD patients (<i>r</i> = 0.58, <i>p</i> &#x3c; 0.01); however, no significant correlation between the plasma MCP-1 and age was found in control subjects (<i>p</i> &#x3e; 0.05). The plasma MCP-1 significantly correlated with the average hearing level of 500, 1,000, 2,000, and 4,000 Hz, and the maximum slow phase eye velocity in caloric test in the better side (<i>p</i> &#x3c; 0.05). Also, the plasma MCP-1 showed significant positive correlations with the plasma IL-6 (<i>r</i> = 0.49, <i>p</i> &#x3c; 0.01) and plasma TNFα (<i>r</i> = 0.32, <i>p</i> &#x3c; 0.05) in MD group. <b><i>Conclusions:</i></b> Our results suggest that the increased plasma MCP-1 accompanying pro-inflammatory processes are associated with the progression of the hearing impairment and the bilateral disability of MD.

This report describes CT and MRI findings of temporal bone metastasis from follicular thyroid carcinoma in two cases. Both of these had large, osteolytic, hypervascular masses of the temporal bone, accompanied by internal scattered bone fragments and extraosseous mass formation on unenhanced and contrast-enhanced CT images. In the first case, several dilated and tortuous vessels within the markedly hypervascular mass were observed on the arterial phase of dynamic contrast-enhanced CT images. Compared with the signal intensity of the cerebellum, temporal bone masses showed slightly hypo- to slightly hyperintense on T1-weighted images and slightly hypo- to moderately hyperintense on T2-weighted images. Both cases had flow voids in abnormally dilated vessels within the mass on T1- and T2-weighted images. Thyroid follicular carcinoma rarely metastasizes the temporal bone and presents with an osteolytic hypervascular mass with flow void sign.

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