Auditory brain stem responses in the diagnosis of cerebellopontine angle tumours.
There is a constant search for more reliable methods of diagnosing cerebellopontine angle tumours at an early stage. The auditory brain stem responses promise to be of use as such a method. In two patients with extracanalicular neurinomas we found a definitely abnormal brain stem response even though conventional tests produced a cochlear type of test pattern. In a third patient with a meningeoma we obtained a similar type of response. Here the conventional tests clearly pointed to the presence of retrocochlear disease. Characteristic findings are a broadening of the whole nerve action potential and a delay in the appearance of the Jewettv-FFP7 complex.
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001299:Audiometry; D001306:Auditory Pathways / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001933:Brain Stem / Q000503:physiopathology*; D002528:Cerebellar Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology; D002530:Cerebellopontine Angle; D005071:Evoked Potentials; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008579:Meningioma / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology; D009464:Neuroma, Acoustic / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology