The relationship between clinical characteristics and magnetic resonance imaging results of Ménière disease: a prospective study

Ménière disease (MD) is an idiopathic inner ear disorder, and endolymphatic hydrops (EH) being considered to be its pathological basis. Currently, there is no gold standard for diagnosing MD. Previous study has reported visualized EH using MRI by intratympanic gadolinium-based contrast media (GBCM) administration (IT-Gd) in patients with MD, and this technique was gradually established for MD diagnosis. However, few studies reported their diagnostic sensitivity and specificity in clinical application. This prospective study aimed at investigating the clinical characteristics and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) results of patients with MD, and analyzing the relationship between clinical results and MRI findings in MD patients. Our study shows that the diagnostic sensitivity and specificity of MRI were 79.2% and 80.7% respectively. Moreover, there was no significant correlation between hearing levels and cochlear grading scores, nor vestibular grading scores. The duration of disease was not significantly associated with cochlear or vestibular grading scores. These findings suggest that IT-Gd MRI offers reliable radiological diagnostic criteria for MD.