Introduction: Patients with episodic vestibular syndrome (EVS) whose symptoms resemble those of vestibular migraine (VM) but who do not meet the criteria for it are common.
Objective: To describe those patients suffering from EVS in whom defined etiologies have been ruled out in order to determine if their symptoms can be linked to VM.
Material and methods: Prospective multicenter study. The medical records of patients with VM and patients with EVS suggestive of VM but not meeting the criteria for it were examined. The characteristics of headache, the number and the length of attacks, the association of vestibular symptoms and headache, the intensity of symptoms and the response to treatment were recorded.
Results: 58 patients met the criteria for VM or probable VM; 30 did not. All of the symptoms improved significantly in the treated patients with VM or probable VM; in the rest of the treated patients, only the vestibular symptoms improved.
Conclusion: A subgroup of patients that cannot be attributed to any known vestibulopathy according to present day VM criteria profited from migraine treatment, suggesting that their vestibular symptoms belong to the migraine spectrum; whereas some do not, yet our analysis could not identify distinctive features that allowed subgroup attribution.
Keywords: Migraine disorders; therapeutics; vestibular diseases.