Eser MB, Atalay B, Dogan MB, Gündüz N, Kalcioglu MT. Measuring 3D Cochlear Duct Length on MRI: Is It Accurate and Reliable?
AJNR Am J Neuroradiol 2021;
42:2016-2022. [PMID:
34593380 DOI:
10.3174/ajnr.a7287]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/21/2021] [Accepted: 07/25/2021] [Indexed: 11/07/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE
Prior studies have evaluated cochlear length using CT to select the most suitable cochlear implants and obtain patient-specific anatomy. This study aimed to test the accuracy and reliability of cochlear lateral wall length measurements using 3D MR imaging.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Two observers measured the cochlear lateral wall length of 35 patients (21 men) with postlingual hearing loss using CT and MR imaging. The intraclass correlation coefficient (with 95% confidence intervals) was used to evaluate intraobserver and interobserver reliability for the 3D cochlear measurements.
RESULTS
The mean age of the participants was 39.85 (SD, 16.60) years. Observer 1 measured the mean lateral wall length as 41.52 (SD, 2.25) mm on CT and 41.44 (SD, 2.18) mm on MR imaging, with a mean difference of 0.08 mm (95% CI, -0.11 to 0.27 mm), while observer 2 measured the mean lateral wall length as 41.74 (SD, 2.69) mm on CT and 42.34 (SD, 2.53) mm on MR imaging, with a mean difference of -0.59 mm (95% CI, -1.00 to -0.20 mm). An intraclass correlation coefficient value of 0.90 (95% CI, 0.84-0.94) for CT and 0.69 (95% CI, 0.46-0.82) for MR imaging was obtained for the interobserver reliability for the full-turn cochlear lateral wall length.
CONCLUSIONS
CT-based 3D cochlear measurements show excellent intraobserver and interobserver reliability, while MR imaging-based lateral wall length measurements have good-to-excellent intraobserver reliability and moderate interobserver reliability. These results corroborate the use of CT for 3D cochlear measurements as a reference method and demonstrate MR imaging to be an alternative acquisition technique with comparably reliable results.
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