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Because idiopathic sudden deafness is regarded as the result of a cochlear microcirculation disorder, its treatment has been based mainly on vasoactive therapy with little regard for the blood-flow conditions produced by these circumstances. In a group of 16 patients with sudden-onset deafness, we determined blood viscosity at different shear rates, as well as erythrocyte aggregability, deformability, and filterability, and other potentially influential parameters, such as hematobrit, fibrinogen, and leukocyte and platelet count. These values correlated with hearing loss and average recovery after conventional treatment. Our results showed a trend to high blood viscosity in patients in relation to a control group of persons with normal hearing, with a notorious increase in aggregability, which correlated significantly with recovery of hearing capacity, and a decrease in blood filterability, which correlated with average hearing loss. This suggests a potential etiopathogenic mechanism of the disease and an alternative treatment complementary to current treatment.

Computer-aided analysis of television images of the eye (CAATIE) helps objectively assess the intravascular aggregation in the bulbar vessels by determining the values of aggregation gradients of intravascular bloodflow. Standards gradients of intravascular bloodflow aggregation have been determined for three age groups. CAATIE permits the assessment of parietal bloodflow in large veins. No disorders of parietal bloodflow were detected in subjects without vascular abnormalities. The derived aggregation values for CAATIE in subjects of different age help assess the severity of microcirculatory disorders in vascular diseases on the basis of deviations of the above parameters from age-specific norm.

Human clinical biomicroscopy is an aid to the assessment of the microcirculation in health and disease. It has only limited diagnostic value but in some important conditions gives helpful clues and in a few conditions pathognomonic information. Features which can be evaluated include intravascular red cell aggregation, small blood vessel patterns, diameter of vessels, stasis pools, microaneurysms, petechiae and vasomotion. Red cell aggregation correlates well with sedimentation rate. Some of these factors, or combinations of them, correlate well with arteriosclerosis, diabetes, and hypertension. The apparatus required is relatively simple, and the method is noninvasive.