MRI Screening in Vestibular Schwannoma: A Deep Learning-based Analysis of Clinical and Audiometric Data

To find a more objective method of assessing which patients should be screened for a vestibular schwannoma (VS) with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) using a deep-learning algorithm to assess clinical and audiometric data.

Clinical and audiometric data were collected for 592 patients who received an audiogram between January 2015 and 2020 at Duke University Health Center with and without VS confirmed by MRI. These data were analyzed using a deep learning-based analysis to determine if the need for MRI screening could be assessed more objectively with adequate sensitivity and specificity.

Patients with VS showed slightly elevated, but not statistically significant, mean thresholds compared to those without. Tinnitus, gradual hearing loss, and aural fullness were more common in patients with VS. Of these, only the presence of tinnitus was statistically significant. Several machine learning algorithms were used to incorporate and model the collected clinical and audiometric data, but none were able to distinguish ears with and without confirmed VS. When tumor size was taken into account the analysis was still unable to distinguish a difference.

Using audiometric and clinical data, deep learning-based analyses failed to produce an adequately sensitive and specific model for the detection of patients with VS. This suggests that a specific pattern of audiometric asymmetry and clinical symptoms may not necessarily be predictive of the presence/absence of VS to a level that clinicians would be comfortable forgoing an MRI.