3D-FLAIR MRI Findings and Its Clinical significance in Patients with Large Vestibular Aqueduct Syndrome
LIU Ying
CAO Dairong
FANG Zheming
GU Xi
XING Zhen
Abstract：Subject To study characteristics of inner ears imaging with 3D-fluid-attenuated inversion recovery (3D-FLAIR) and its clinical significance in patients with large vestibular aqueduct syndrome (LVAS). Methods Study sub-jects included 30 patients (60 ears) with bilateral LVAS confirmed by water imaging with 3D-TSE sequence and 10 normal volunteers (20 ears). 3D-FLAIR sequence was performed using a 3-Tesla MR scanner. With comparison to labyrinth mor-phology on routine inner ear water imaging, characteristics of labyrinth signals were examined. Signal intensities (SI) in the endolymphatic sac, vestibule and cochlea was measured, and their correlation to the degree of hearing loss and patient age analyzed. Correlation between the SI ratio (SIRs) of the endolymphatic sac and patient age (degree of hearing loss) was in-vestigated. Results On 3D-FLAIR, high signal was present in 52 cochleae and 50 vestibules among the 60 ears with LVAS, and in none of the 20 normal ears. There was no significant difference between endolymphatic sac SI and that of the vesti-bule (t=-1.807,P=0.074) or cochlea (t=-1.2,P=0.233). There was no correlation between high SI in inner ear and hearing loss (P=0.840). A positive linear correlation, however, was found between SIR and patient age (r=0.510,P=0.000), but not between SIR and hearing loss (r=0.027,P=0.852). Conclusion Signal variation in inner ear seen on 3D-FLAIR se-quences does not correlate with the degree of hearing loss, but with patient age in LVAS.
Keywords：Fluid Attenuated Inversion RecoveryEnlarged Vestibular Aqueduct SyndromeMagnetic Resonance Im-aging
Publication Date：2016-01-01
Online Publishing Date：2025-08-15(First online date of this platform, not the publication date of the document)
Pages：5( 783-787 )