Endolymphatic space size in patients with Meniere’s disease and healthy controls

Abstract

Conclusions: The incident ratios of cochlear and/or vestibular endolymphatic hydrops (EH) were significantly higher in the affected ears of patients with Meniere’s disease (MD) than in the ears of healthy controls. There were no significant differences between controls and the contralateral ears of MDs. Objectives: The aim was to compare the incidence ratios of EH between unilateral/bilateral MD and controls using 3T magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) with intravenous gadolinium. Methods: A total of 41 patients were diagnosed with MD: 32 with unilateral MD (uMD) and nine with bilateral MD (bMD). Fifteen healthy volunteers were enrolled as controls. The patients underwent 3T MRI 4 h after intravenous injection of gadolinium. Results: Cochlear EH was present in 3.3% of 30 ears of 15 controls, 6.3% of 32 contralateral (contra) ears of 32 uMDs, 62.5% of 32 affected ears of 32 uMDs, and 55.6% of 18 affected ears of nine bMDs. Vestibular EH was observed in 6.7% of control ears, 3.1% of contra-uMD ears, 65.6% of affected uMD ears, and in 55.6% of affected bMD ears. Either cochlear or vestibular EH was present in 10.0% of control ears, 6.3% of contra-uMD ears, 81.3% of affected uMD ears, and 44.4% of affected bMD ears.

Keywords:

• Endolymphatic hydrops
• MRI
• gadolinium
• asymptomatic ear
• healthy controls

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Dr Michiko Shuto, a registered statistician (certificate number: 62720218) for helpful advice on the statistical analyses and Professors Shinji Naganawa and Toshiaki Taoka (Department of Radiology, Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine, Nagoya, Aichi, Japan) for technical support. This study was supported in part by Grant-in-Aid for Research on Intractable Vestibular Disorder from Japan AMED (2015-2017) and JSPS KAKENHI (Grant 2016-2018).

Disclosure statement

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