Imaging of Ménière Disease

[Frédéric]

Imaging of Ménière

https://books.google.fr/books?hl=fr...4cqH8Nd4gvkTIhww#v=onepage&q=tinnitus&f=false

Key Points

• The delayed (4-hour) intravenous gadolinium-enhanced 3D FLAIR MR imaging technique is most frequently used and is able to detect and grade endolymphatic hydrops in patients with Ménière disease with a high sensitivity and specificity.
  
• The intratympanic gadolinium administrated MR imaging technique is also accurate but has the disadvantage of evaluating only one ear, of being invasive and an off-label use of gadolinium.
  
• The non-contrast MR imaging technique uses a coronal heavily T2-weighted sequence in which a saccular height greater than 1.6 mm is regarded as pathological.
  
• Using a 4-stage grading system for vestibular hydrops yields a higher sensitivity without loss of specificity, compared to the currently used 3-stage grading system.
• Cochlear and vestibular perilymphatic enhancement is more pronounced on the affected side in patients with Ménière disease.

 

[Codaz]

Very interesting. The thing is that I have heard that 9.4T MRI is used for the imaging of Meniere. There is such a very new MRI installation in Maastricht, The Netherlands. I wonder if they put patiënts in.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26048336

This study also mentions the gadolinium. I have had it on my normal 1.5T MRI for meniere but it did not show any specific results. Maybe the resolution was too low or 1.6mm endolymphatic hydrops cannot be seen on normal MRI's.