title: Audiovestibular tests in the diagnosis of cerebellopontine angle tumours.
abstract: Symptoms and signs were recorded in a series of 78 patients with a cerebello-pontine-angle (CPA) tumour and in 92 patients with symptoms and signs suggestive of such a lesion but with a negative CT scan. Variable symptomatology was found in the tumour cases. A substantial proportion of the patients had experienced sudden phenomena such as rotatory vertigo and/or sudden hearing loss. A CPA tumour must therefore be considered in almost every case of unilateral auditory or vestibular disturbances. Unfortunately, conventional audiovestibular tests have a low sensitivity of around 50%, with the exception of stapedial reflex threshold elevation (89%). The specificity on the other hand is quite low for this test, whereas other test results, like a genuinely pathological stapedial reflex decay, carry a high specificity of 60%. However, brainstem response audiometry (BRA) exhibited a very high sensitivity (100%) coupled with a reasonable specificity (54%), making it a suitable single test for screening patients suspected of having a CPA tumour. A program for the diagnostic work-up is suggested.
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology, University Hospital, Linköping, Sweden.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Harder
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001299:Audiometry; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D004584:Electronystagmography; D005260:Female; D006313:Hearing Loss, Central / Q000175:diagnosis; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009464:Neuroma, Acoustic / Q000175:diagnosis*; D012022:Reflex, Acoustic; D014724:Vestibular Function Tests