Visual Snow Syndrome and Its Relationship to Tinnitus

Renze, Matthew

doi:10.5935/0946-5448.20170014

Cited by 16 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 6 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Except for age, we were able to substantiate earlier epidemiological estimations, including figures on comorbidities and the female-to-male ratio. Thus, our results regarding the co-occurrence of headache (54.5%) and tinnitus (59.1%), as well as the femaleto-male ratio (1.6:1), are very similar to those reported previously (headache, 59.0%; tinnitus, 52.0%; femaleto-male ratio 1.1:1 [1,5,9,13]). Slightly higher numbers in our study concerning mood impairment (72.7%), compared with previous figures for anxiety (23.0% and 44.8%) and depression (21.0% and 41.4%) [1,5], might be because we inquired about mood symptoms in very general terms.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

“…The high correlation of visual snow syndrome and tinnitus in our and other studies suggests that these conditions share common underlying mechanisms. We agree with previous suggestions that visual snow syndrome ‘likely results from widespread disturbance of sensory processing resulting in sensory misperception’ .…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 69%

“…Nevertheless, a large number of publications about visual snow and visual snow syndrome have occurred in PubMed within the last 5 years (e.g. [5,6,[8][9][10][11][12][13][14]). This and extensive media coverage, as well as responses on social platforms (e.g.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Prevalence of visual snow syndrome in the UK

Kondziella

Olsen

Dreier

2020

Euro J of Neurology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

44.8 AE 15 years), although this was not statistically different (P = 0.06). Of 22 participants with visual snow syndrome, 16 had mood symptoms (72.7%; P = 0.01), 12 had headache (54.5%; P = 0.06), including five with visual migraine aura (22.7%; P = 0.15) and 13 had tinnitus (59.1%; P < 0.001). No participant had diabetes or a cleft lip (control questions). Following a multivariable regression analysis to adjust for age and gender, only the association between visual snow syndrome and tinnitus remained significant (odds ratio, 3.93; 95% CI, 1.63-9.9; P = 0.003). Conclusions: The UK prevalence of visual snow syndrome is around 2%. We confirmed an association with tinnitus, but unprimed laypeople with visual snow syndrome are on average older than those seeking medical attention.

show abstract

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 69%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Prevalence of visual snow syndrome in the UK

Kondziella

Olsen

Dreier

2020

Euro J of Neurology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Cortical hyperexcitability, due to increased neural contrast gain rather than abnormal neural noise [17], changes in speci c visual streams, altered thalamocortical pathways and dysfunction of higher-level salience network controls have been suggested [18]. Interestingly, tinnitus, considered the auditory analogue to visual snow, is also highly prevalent in VSS, which suggests a common pathway [19].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Simultaneous 18F-FDG PET/MR metabolic and structural changes in visual snow syndrome and diagnostic use

Laere

Ceccarini

Gebruers

et al. 2022

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Purpose Visual snow syndrome (VSS) is a recently recognized chronic neurologic condition characterized by the constant perceiving of tiny flickering dots throughout the entire visual field. Metabolic overactivity and grey matter volume increase in the lingual gyrus has been reported. We investigated this by 18F-FDG PET/MR in comparison to healthy controls. Aside from voxel-based characterization, the classification accuracy of volume-of-interest (VOI) based multimodal assessment was evaluated, also in comparison with visual analysis. Methods Simultaneous 18F-FDG PET and MR imaging was performed in 7 patients with VSS (24.6 ± 5.7 yrs; 5M/2F) and 15 age-matched healthy controls (CON) (28.0 ± 5.3 yrs; 8M/7F). SPM12 and voxel-based morphometric (VBM) analysis was performed. A VOI-based discriminant analysis was performed with relative 18F-FDG uptake, MR grey matter (GM) volumes and their combination. A visual analysis was done by two blinded experienced readers. Results Relative increased hypermetabolism was found in VSS patients in the lingual gyrus and cuneus (pFWE<0.05, peak change + 24%), and hypometabolism in the mesiotemporal cortex (pheight,uncorr<0.001, peak change − 14%). VSS patients also had increased GM volume in the limbic system and frontotemporal cortex bilaterally (pFWE<0.05), and in the left secondary and associative visual cortex and in the left lingual gyrus (pheight,uncorr <0.001). Discriminant analysis resulted in 100% correct classification accuracy for 18F-FDG with lingual gyrus, cuneus and lateral occipital lobe (BA 17 and BA 18) as main discriminators. Unimodal MR- and combined 18F-FDG + MR classification resulted in an accuracy of 91% and 95%, respectively. Visual analysis of 18F-FDG was highly observer dependent. Conclusion Patients with VSS have highly significant structural and metabolic abnormalities in the visual and limbic system. VOI-based discriminant analysis of 18F-FDG PET allows reliable individual classification versus controls, whereas visual analysis of experienced observers was highly variable. Further investigation in larger series, also in comparison to VSS mimicking disorders such as migraine, is warranted. Retrospectively registered at clinicaltrials.gov under NCT05569733 on Oct 5, 2022.

show abstract

“…It is currently not known how many people suffer from visual snow worldwide, but from available data it is possible to say that on average the population diagnosed with this condition is male and relatively young (3). The condition that is strongly associated with visual snow is tinnitus -several studies indicate a shared pathology (7,8).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Can repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation of the visual cortex ameliorate the state of patients with visual snow?

Grey¹,

Klobušiaková²,

Minks³

2020

BLL

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

AIMS: Visual snow is a neurological condition, for which an effective treatment has not been established. The aim of this study was to fi nd whether Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS) can improve the state of patients suffering from visual snow. To our knowledge, no other group has tested this method in the treatment of visual snow. METHODS: We applied rTMS of 10 and 10+1 Hz on the visual cortices of 9 patients with visual snow. Sham stimulation with the vertex as the target site was also tested. As a method of assessment, we used visual evoked potentials, questionnaires and visual snow diaries. For data evaluation, we used the Paired Sample T-test separately for each stimulation type. RESULTS: The Paired Sample T-test revealed a decreased sum of visual snow intensities extracted from visual snow diaries in the week after 10+1 Hz stimulation as compared to the fi gure in the week before (p =0.02). CONCLUSION: We detected a trend indicating an improvement of patients' condition based on the data from visual snow diaries. Research on a larger group of patients is required to confi rm these fi ndings; however, our study provides a framework to build upon (Tab. 4, Fig. 1, Ref. 22).

show abstract

Visual Snow Syndrome and Its Relationship to Tinnitus

Cited by 16 publications

References 6 publications

Prevalence of visual snow syndrome in the UK

Prevalence of visual snow syndrome in the UK

Simultaneous 18F-FDG PET/MR metabolic and structural changes in visual snow syndrome and diagnostic use

Can repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation of the visual cortex ameliorate the state of patients with visual snow?

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About