Neuroradiology Experts Provide Insight Into Otology Imaging

There are cases that need to be acknowledged where the rule can’t be so rigidly applied. Because the course of the vestibular aqueduct is an oblique one, short-axis reformats should be used in the evaluation, a point made in a study of 15 patients by Dr. Curtin. He and his colleagues determined that, when it is examined in this way, the aqueduct should really measure less than 1 mm along its course. This, Dr. Robson said, “introduces a gray zone, in that patients with a normal midpoint diameter but with an opercular diameter of between 1 to 2 mm could be potentially abnormal.

“Indeed,” she said, “in some of these children we have actually noticed cochlear incomplete partition type 2 anomalies. I think that is the gray zone where we would perhaps provide a measurement rather than coming down hard on saying whether or not it’s enlarged.”

Thomas Collins is a freelance medical writer based in Florida.