MRI Measurement For Infant Inner Ear Structures

Objective to establish the MRI measurement criterion of infant inner ear structures.Material and Methods In my paper, fifty two inner ears of26healthy infantvolunteers underwent MRI heavily T2-weighted axial scanning. All the original imagedata were transferred to a post-processing workstation. processing．All the structuresof inner ear were reconstructed，rotated from various angles and measured by usingmaximum intensity projection(MIP) and volume rendering technique(VRT).Results (1)All the structures of inner ear could be visualized clearly in MIP andVRT images.(2)There was no sex-related differences in all measurements except threesemicircular canal height. The height of upper, posterior and lateral semicircular canalwere (5.86±0.33)mm(male) versus (5.65±0.11)mm (female)；(5.68±0.33)mm(male)versus (5.38±0.40)mm(female)；(4.04±0.34)mm(male) versus(3.77±0.30)mm(female).(3) There was no side-related differences in allmeasurements.(4)95%of the bilateral range: the cochlea height was (3.10~3.92)mm、the external diameter of cochlea basal turn was (3.85~5.37)mm; the dimensions ofirregular cylinder-vestibule were (4.94~5.96)mm、(3.02~4.24)mm；the height, spanand diameter of upper semicircular canal were (5.02~6.70)mm(male) versus(4.87~6.43)mm(female),(3.81~5.33)mm and (0.24~0.86)mm; the height, span anddiameter of posterior semicircular canal were (4.37~6.99)mm(male) versus(4.36~6.40)mm(female),(1.83~3.05)mm and (0.26~1.12)mm; the height, span anddiameter of posterior semicircular canal were (3.28~4.80)mm(male) versus(2.97~4.57)mm(female),(3.26~4.60)mm and (0.26~0.92)mm.Conclusion Based on the MRI measurement criterion of infant inner ear structures, we can improve the diagnosing and typing of congenital malformation ofinner ear furtherly, which can benefit a lot to the early diagnosis of infant hearing lossand successful implementation of cochlear implantation.