Progression of autoimmune inner ear disease to labyrinthitis ossificans: clinical and radiologic correlation

We report the case of a 42-year-old man who presented with fluctuating bilateral sensorineural hearing loss that subsequently progressed to a complete hearing loss, and we describe the correlation between the clinical and radiologic features of this case. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report to demonstrate imaging evidence of progression from autoimmune inner ear disease to labyrinthitis ossificans. This is also the first reported case of a reversal of a loss of labyrinthine CISS (constructive interference in a steady state) signal, suggesting that T2-weighted hyposignal may be attributable to an alteration in labyrinthine fluid content and not to fibrosis only.