title: Radiologic evaluation of the cerebellopontine cistern and the internal auditory canal.
abstract: Radiologic evaluation of patients with unilateral sensorineural hearing loss depends on the quality of the computed tomographic (CT) scanner. Two scanners were evaluated in the present study: one utilizing thick collimation (10- and 13-mm sections) and the second utilizing thin collimation (1.5-mm sections). In both evaluations, intravenous contrast medium was used to exclude a cerebellopontine angle mass. If the cerebellopontine cistern is normal and there is clinical evidence of an intracanalicular lesion, air or metrizamide CT is used. When 10- and 13-mm sections are used, air provides the best contrast with overlapping sections. When 1.5-mm sections are used, coronal CT shows metrizamide in the internal auditory canal.
mesh_terms: D000388:Air; D002530:Cerebellopontine Angle / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D007758:Ear, Inner / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D006319:Hearing Loss, Sensorineural / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D006801:Humans; D008793:Metrizamide; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed
chemical_list: D008793:Metrizamide