3. Results
Both ears of the 71 MD patients (27 females, 44 males, mean age 54.4
years, age range 23 - 77 years) were measured and analysed. 53 of these
patients were classified as unilaterally affected (20 females, 33 males,
mean age 50.5 years, age range 23 - 77 years). Further clinical patient
data were also collected, such as symptom duration (range 4 - 252
months, mean 76 months) and four-tone average calculated from hearing at
0.5, 1, 2 and 3 kHz (range unaffected side 2.5 – 31.75 dB, mean 13.87
dB, range affected side 2.5 - 83.5 dB, mean 42.02 dB).
No significant differences were observed when comparing the affected
side to the non-affected side of the VIIth and
VIIIth cranial nerves in the cohort of clinically
unilaterally affected MD patients (table 1) when adjusting for multiple
testing. Without adjustment for multiple testing, in order for catering
for an explorative approach, significant differences were found
following no certain pattern, e.g. p<0.05 could be found for
SD at the level of CPA in the VIIIth nerve and LD at
level of CPA and fundus of the VIIth nerve. These
results were found to be independent of the used MRI sequence (CISS-0.4,
CISS-0.6, IR-0.5 or IR-0.3) when adjusting for multiple testing (tables
2 and 3) at the level of the CPA. Without Bonferroni correction
significant differences were found in the VIIIth nerve
at this level only for SD in CISS-0.4 (table 1) and CSA in IR-0.3 at the
level of CPA (table 3), obviously also not following a specific pattern.
Also, no significant differences between the morphometric measurements
of the VIIth and VIIIth cranial
nerves of the different sides were observed after Bonferroni correction
in the cohort of clinically bilaterally affected patients.
When comparing the affected side of the unilaterally affected cohort
with the LEIM-assessed side of the bilaterally affected cohort, no
significant difference was shown along our measuring points of
VIIth and VIIIth cranial nerves
(Table 4, cross sectional areas within CISS-0.4, CISS-0.6, IR-0.3 and
IR-0.5). Similar results were found investigating the clinically
non-affected side of the first cohort and the contralateral ear of the
bilaterally affected cohort. These results were again independent of the
used MRI sequence.
An overview of the significant p-values without adjustment for multiple
testing is summarized in table 5, no specific pattern is recognizable.
We furthermore evaluated the morphometric properties of the
VIIth and VIIIth cranial nerves of
the first cohort in dependence of symptom duration. We initially divided
the cohort of unilaterally affected patients in a subgroup with a
symptom duration of a maximum of 12 months (n = 9) and compared these to
the rest of the group (n = 26); we observed no significant differences
between the groups neither when comparing the affected sides nor when
comparing the non-affected sides. Subsequently, we compared patients
with a symptom duration of at least 120 months (n = 14) to the patients
with a symptom duration of a maximum of 12 months (n = 9). Again, there
were no significant differences for the morphometric parameters (table
6).