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).

Keywords:

• ANSD
• cochlear nerve
• magnetic resonance imaging

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.

Funding information

This study was supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 81271072).