Abstract:
Objectives: Several studies proposed a loss of neural structures
in Menière’s disease (MD). It has also been shown that
VIIth and VIIIth cranial nerves are
enlarged within MD patients compared to normal controls. We aimed to
investigate potential differences in these two nerves in patients with
MD.
Setting: 71 patients with MD were included, 53 showed clinically
unilateral affection. Constructive-interference-in-steady-state(CISS)
and 3D-FLAIR-inversion-recovery(IR) sequences with two different slice
thicknesses were acquired on a clinical 3T magnetic resonance imaging
scanner. We evaluated morphometric properties of the
VIIth and VIIIth cranial nerves
passing from the cerebellopontine angle to the inner ear modiolus. In
patients with clinically unilateral MD, we compared the unaffected to
the clinically affected side. In addition, we evaluated the morphology
of the nerves in correlation to symptom duration.
Results: The clinically unilateral MD-patients showed no
significant differences after Bonferroni correction when comparing the
affected side to the non-affected side of VIIth and
VIIIth cranial nerves. There was no significant
difference between patients with different symptom durations.
Conclusions: Our data showed no differences in nerve morphometry
between the clinically non-affected and the clinically affected side in
patients with clinically unilateral MD. There was also no correlation to
duration of symptoms, in contrast to previously demonstrated
correlations between clinical features and the extent of endolymphatic
hydrops. A disease process starting before onset of clinical symptoms
could be a potential explanation.