Diagnosis of Menière's disease on MRI: feasibility at 1.5 Tesla

Menière's disease (MD) is clinically characterized by the triad sensorineural hearing loss, tinnitus and/or aural fullness, and vertigo. Endolymphatic hydrops (EH) is the histopathological basis associated with MD, which can be demonstrated on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Currently, most studies are done on a 3-T MRI scanner and to date it is believed that EH can only be demonstrated on a 3-T magnet. We report the feasibility of demonstrating EH on a 1.5-T scanner using the standard 20-channel head and neck coil and the current standard 4-h delayed intravenous gadolinium-enhanced three-dimensional fluid-attenuated inversion recovery (3D-FLAIR) sequence.

To investigate whether current standard 4-h delayed intravenous gadolinium-enhanced 3D-FLAIR imaging can demonstrate endolymphatic hydrops on a 1.5-T MRI scanner.

The 3D-FLAIR sequence was taken from a 3-T MRI protocol and tested on a volunteer patient with clinically "definite" MD, after 4-h delayed intravenous contrast injection. Good image quality was obtained after reducing both the matrix and the bandwidth, with clear demonstration of EH. Subsequently, eight more patients with unilateral disease were imaged. Five patients had "definite" MD and four had "probable" MD.

We imaged nine patients with unilateral disease and detected EH in eight of nine ears. One patient with "probable" MD did not show any abnormality, but the images were degraded by motion artifacts.

At a cost of 2 min extra scanning time compared to a 3-T scanner, EH can be confidently demonstrated with the current standard 3D-FLAIR sequence on a 1.5-T magnet.