Dae Yoon Kim, Presenter: Nothing to Disclose

Jeong Hyun Lee MD, PhD, Abstract Co-Author: Nothing to Disclose

Won-Jung Chung, Abstract Co-Author: Nothing to Disclose

Young Jun Choi MD, Abstract Co-Author: Nothing to Disclose

Sohyun Jo, Abstract Co-Author: Nothing to Disclose

Jung Hwan Baek, Abstract Co-Author: Nothing to Disclose

Ka-Gyoung Yoon MD, Abstract Co-Author: Nothing to Disclose

It is well-known that cochlear fluid-attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) signal is increased in patients with acoustic neuroma (AN). The purpose of this study was to investigate if cochlear FLAIR signal in patients with AN correlates with ear symptoms or audiometric findings, and if there is any difference in the cochlear signal according to the extent of AN in a large series.

This retrospective study enrolled 102 patients with surgically confirmed or radiologically diagnosed AN from 2008 to 2012. There were 22 patients (M : F = 10 : 12; mean age: 50 ± 13.2 years) with AN confined to the internal auditory canal (ANIAC) and 80 (M : F = 48 : 32; mean age: 49.9 ± 12.3 years) with AN located in the cerebellopontine angle cistern as well as in the IAC (ANCPA). We quantitatively measured the signal intensity (SI) of the entire volume of the cochlea on the affected side by placing ROIs semi-automatically drawn on 3D T2-VISTA images of the same slices. We compared the SI ratios (rSI) of the cochlea to the brainstem with ear symptoms including tinnitus, hearing disturbance or vertigo and with the audiometric findings in ANIAC and ANCPA.patients, respectively.

The rSI of the cochlea was positively correlated with the audiometric findings in ANIAC (r = 0.471; p=0.027), but showed no correlation in ANCPA (p = 0.427). The rSI of the cochlea was significantly higher with the presence of hearing disturbance or tinnitus only in patients with ANIAC (p = 0.001 and p = 0.004, respectively). There was no correlation between the rSI of the cochlea and the presence of hearing disturbance or tinnitus in patients with ANCPA (p = 0.600 and p = 0.506, respectively). Both ANIAC and ANCPA did not show any difference of the rSI of the cochlea whether they had vertigo or not (p = 0.082, p = 0.782, respectively).

Cochlear FLAIR signal is significantly higher with the presence of hearing disturbance or tinnitus and shows positive correlation with the audiometric findings only in patients with AN limited to the IAC.

The results of this study suggest that functional evaluation of the cochlea could be possible with FLAIR images in patients with acoustic neuroma limited to the IAC.

Kim, D, Lee, J, Chung, W, Choi, Y, Jo, S, Baek, J, Yoon, K, Correlation of Ear Symptoms with Increased Cochlear Fluid-attenuated Inversion Recovery Signal in Patients with Acoustic Neuroma.  Radiological Society of North America 2013 Scientific Assembly and Annual Meeting, December 1 - December 6, 2013 ,Chicago IL. http://archive.rsna.org/2013/13019706.html