Evaluation of cochlear nerve diameter and cross-sectional area in ANSD patients by 3.0-Tesla MRI

Abstract

Conclusions: The size of cochlear nerve (CN) is atrophic in adult auditory neuropathy spectrum disorder (ANSD) patients compared with non-ANSD sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) patients and normal hearing subjects, and CN deficiency is one of the lesions for ANSD patients. Objectives: To evaluate the dimensions of CN in adult ANSD patients on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and confirm the hypothesis that CN deficiency is one of the lesions for ANSD patients. Methods: Medical records and MRI of 24 adult ANSD patients reviewed retrospectively and 20 non-ANSD SNHL and 24 volunteers with normal hearing were recruited as control groups. The long diameter (LD), short diameter (SD), and cross-sectional area (CSA) of CN and facial nerve (FN) were measured. Results: Among the 24 ANSD patients, this study was able to reconstruct and measure the CN of 91.7% (22/24, total 43 ears) of patients and FN of 83.3% (20/24, total 38 ears) of patients. The mean values and standard deviations of LD, SD, and CSA of CN in ANSD patients were 0.65 ± 0.20 mm, 0.44 ± 0.15 mm, and 0.30 ± 0.19 mm2, respectively. They were significantly smaller in ANSD patients than in control groups (p < 0.001).