Analysis of the joint and a posteriori probability between primary empty sella, its comorbidities and audiovestibular pathology

BackgroundPrimary empty sella is a herniation of the sellar diaphragm into the pituitary space. It is an incidental finding and patients may manifest neurological, ophthalmological and/or endocrine disorders. Episodes of vertigo, dizziness, and hearing loss, have been reported.ObjectiveTo determine the conditional probability, as well as the statistical dependency, through the Bayesian analysis in patients with primary empty sella and audiovestibular disorders.PatientsIndividuals who attended the National Rehabilitation Institute from January 2010 to December 2011, diagnosed with primary empty sella and audiovestibular disorders.Material and methodsAn analysis was performed on a sample of 18 patients with a diagnosis of primary empty sella confirmed with magnetic resonance studies and who had signs of vertigo, hearing loss and dizziness.ResultsOf the 18 patients studied, 3 (16.66%) had primary empty sella as the only clinical evidence. In 9 patients (50%) empty sella was associated with vertigo, and 16 patients (88.88%) were diagnosed with hearing loss, with sensorineural hearing loss being the most frequent (77.77%). The intersection between the proportions of primary empty sella with the presence and type of hearing loss was calculated. Thus for sensorineural hearing loss, the calculated ratio was P(AB)=0.6912, and for conductive and mixed hearing loss the value of P(AB)=0.0493 in both cases.ConclusionsBayesian analysis and conditional probability enables the dependence between two or more variables to be calculated. In this study both mathematical models were used to analyse comorbidities and audiovestibular disorders in patients diagnosed with primary empty sella