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Diagnostic value of the inner ear computed tomography measurements in detecting congenital sensorineural hearing
Armin Doostparast1,2,3, Mohammad Salehi Kareshk4, Arya Doostparast5,6
1Department of Radiology, School of Medicine, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran. armindoostparast7@gmail.com.
Background:
Congenital sensorineural hearing loss (CSNHL) is a very common subtype of pediatric hearing loss disorders. Less severe deformities in CSNHL might not be recognized during a simple visual inspection in computed tomography (CT) of the temporal bone. Therefore, the present study aimed to compare the inner ear measurements between CSNHL patients with grossly normal CT appearance and the healthy population.
Materials And Methods:
Children with confirmed CSNHL were enrolled along with a control group of healthy children. Their CT scans of the temporal bone were retrospectively reviewed. Ten inner ear radiologic measurements, including cochlea height (CH) and width (CW), width of cochlear nerve bony canal (WCN), superior and lateral semicircular canals (SSCC and LSCC) bony island widths, posterior semicircular canal (PSCC) inferior limb length, vestibule height (VH) and width (VW), and vestibular aqueduct (VA) width at the midpoint and operculum were compared between the two groups.
Results:
62 children (30 CSNHL, 37 females, mean age: 7.1 ± 3.4 years) were included. The intra-observer repeatability was very good to excellent across all parameters (Intraclass correlation coefficient: 0.83-0.96). CH (P ≤ 0.001) and VA midpoint width (P ≤ 0.001) were significantly higher in CSNHL patients than healthy individuals, and WCN (P ≤ 0.001), SSCC bony island width (P ≤ 0.001) and LSCC bony island width (P = 0.01) were significantly lower. There was no statistically significant difference in terms of CW (P = 0.83), PSCC inferior limb length (P = 0.54), VH (P = 0.67), VW (P = 0.83), and VA operculum width (P = 0.15). WCN (ROC-AUC: 0.80, cut-off point = 1.9 mm, sensitivity = 60%, specificity = 84%) and VA midpoint width (ROC-AUC: 0.80, cut-off point = 1 mm, sensitivity = 77%, specificity = 75%) demonstrated the highest diagnostic utility in identifying CSNHL, followed by CH, SSCC and LSCC bony island widths.
Conclusion:
Inner ear radiologic measurements, particularly WCN and VA midpoint width, demonstrate relatively high diagnostic value in identifying CSNHL with subtle malformations on temporal bone CT.
