![]() ![]() Fifteen patients presented with peripheral facial palsy, 104 with audiometrically proven sensorineural hearing loss, 109 with vertigo, and 92 with tinnitus as an isolated symptom or in combination. The results of audiometry, auditory brain stem response and vestibular function tests, performed in our otolaryngologic department and interpreted by experienced audiologists and vestibular physiologists under the supervision of an experienced otologic surgeon, were also available for review in 143, 21, and 95 patients, respectively. MR images of the temporal bone and medical records were retrospectively reviewed in 179 patients with facial or audiovestibular dysfunction. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the clinical utility of MR imaging of the temporal bone in patients with facial and audiovestibular dysfunction with particular emphasis on the importance of contrast enhancement. In particular, the use of contrast material in MR imaging has proven to be a very powerful means of depicting soft tissue abnormalities of the temporal bone, and can reveal to better advantage a subtle inflammatory or neoplastic process involving neural structures and the membranous labyrinth ( 5, 6). It can display wide spectrums of disease, from the temporal bone to the cerebral cortex. In contrast, magnetic resonance (MR) imaging, by virtue of its superior contrast resolution and multiplanar imaging capability, can demonstrate small lesions involving the membranous labyrinth and internal auditory canal, and is currently the diagnostic imaging modality of choice for the evaluation of patients with facial and audiovestibular dysfunction such as Bell's palsy, sensorineural hearing loss, vertigo, and tinnitus ( 1 - 4). While computed tomography (CT) is usually used in the investigation of diseases of the bony labyrinth and cerebellopontine angle, its contribution to the diagnosis of diseases of the membranous labyrinth and small lesions of the internal auditory canal is limited. In the past, the diagnostic yields of radiological examination in these patients were low, and conventional radiography and polytomography rarely demonstrated the specific cause. In daily clinical practice, otolaryngologists encounter a significant number of patients with facial and audiovestibular dysfunction. ![]()
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