Department of Neurology, Gelre Hospital, Postbox 9014, 7300 DS Apeldoorn, The Netherlands.
Acta Neurol Belg. 2012 Dec;112(4):357-60. doi: 10.1007/s13760-012-0082-5. Epub 2012 May 11.
Only few patients with dizziness are referred to a medical specialist, who is sometimes unable to come to a conclusive cause of the dizziness. We have no information about the course of unexplained dizziness, from the literature or from our own population. We therefore undertook this follow-up study to assess the outcome of patients with unexplained dizziness, after assessment in a multidisciplinary outpatient clinic. In 292 patients (out of our total cohort of 2,244 patients), a diagnosis could not be established. The median dizziness handicap inventory (DHI) score at the diagnostic visit was 30. We sent them a questionnaire and the DHI. After a median follow-up of 62 months (range 24-105 months), 113 of the 189 responders (60%) reported to still suffer from dizziness, 46 patients had moderate impairments, and 16 patients indicated that they were severely impaired by their dizziness. The DHI only slightly decreased (from median 30 to 26). In 1% of the cases, an organic explanation for the dizziness was ultimately found during follow-up by other health-care workers. Patients who have been assessed in a multidisciplinary dizziness clinic, and in whom no explanatory cause for the dizziness has been found, have a high risk of persisting impairments.
只有少数头晕患者会被转介给医学专家，而专家有时也无法确定头晕的根本原因。我们既没有关于不明原因头晕的病程的信息（无论是来自文献还是我们自己的人群）。因此，我们进行了这项随访研究，以评估在多学科门诊接受评估后的不明原因头晕患者的结局。在 292 名患者（我们的总队列 2244 名患者中的一部分）中，无法明确诊断。在诊断就诊时，中位眩晕残障量表（DHI）评分为 30 分。我们向他们发送了一份问卷和 DHI。中位随访 62 个月（范围 24-105 个月）后，189 名应答者中的 113 名（60%）报告仍有头晕，46 名患者有中度障碍，16 名患者表示头晕严重影响了他们的生活。DHI 仅略有下降（从中位数 30 分降至 26 分）。在 1%的病例中，在随访期间，其他医护人员最终发现了头晕的器质性解释。在多学科头晕诊所接受评估且未发现头晕原因的患者，持续存在损害的风险很高。
