The status of her vestibulopathy is uncertain.

Correct

Symptoms are only a fair to moderate marker of an underlying anatomical or physiological disturbance. It is not uncommon for an initial insult and accompanying pathological footprints to improve while symptoms linger or, conversely, for objective abnormalities to persist while symptoms improve.

Examples of such "objective-subjective discordance" include:

• The poor correlation between back pain and magnetic resonance imaging findings (Jensen et al.,1994);
• Ulcer symptoms and ulcer healing;
• Diabetic symptoms and glucose control (Lustman et al.,1988);
• Palpitations and ventricular ectopy (Barsky et al.,1996); and
• Cognitive complaints following cardiac surgery and neuropsychological testing abnormalities (Vingerhoets et al.,1995).

Like other symptoms, the association between symptoms of vertigo and findings on vestibular testing is often weak (Hoffman et al.,1999). Therefore, the chemotherapy-related vestibulopathy may be progressive, unchanged, or improved despite the fact that the symptom ratings are similar at both time points. However, it is the symptoms that bring the patient to us and warrant clinical attention and management in order to provide appropriate management.

Back to Question

Next Section