A Preliminary Data: Is Cochlear Length Related to Congenital Sensorineural Hearing Loss?

OBJECTIVES: This study used the data from patients with congenital sensorineural hearing loss (CSNHL) and those with normal hearing to measure and compare the length of the cochlea with high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT). MATERIALS AND METHODS: HRCT images of patients who were diagnosed with CSNHL and were candidates for cochlear implantation were evaluated retrospectively. Sixty-three ears of 33 patients were included in the study. The control group comprised 66 ears of 33 individuals. The measurements were conducted by an experienced radiologist, using three-dimensional curved multiplanar reconstruction. All the measurements were performed thrice, and the average was calculated. RESULTS: The data were distributed normally. The lengths of the cochlear components for the CSNHL and control groups were as follows: basal turn 21.66+/-1.01 (21.30-22.02) and 22.57+/-0.68 (22.32-22.81) mm, middle turn 11.58+/-0.69 (11.34-11.83) and 12.39+/-0.46 (12.23-12.56) mm, and apical turn 6.45+/-0.92 (6.12-6.77) and 7.12+/-0.65 (6.89-7.35) mm, respectively. The mean cochlear lateral wall (LW) length was significantly shorter in the CSNHL patients [39.71+/-1.32 (39.25-40.18) mm] than in the controls [42.09+/-1.17 (41.67-42.51) mm], (p<0.001). The intra-rater reliability was 0.878 (confidence interval 95%: 0.841-0.908 p<0.001). The cut-off value was 40.81 mm (sensitivity: 0.91, specificity: 0.94, and accuracy: 0.90). CONCLUSION: There were microanatomic dissimilarities between the length of the cochlea in subjects from the CSNHL group and those from the control group.