Unusual magnetic resonance findings in two children with sudden sensorineural hearing loss.
OBJECTIVE
To describe the MRI findings of two pediatric patients with sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SSHL).


METHODS
Two male patients (two-year and three-months-old, and one year and four-months-old) presented with sudden dumbness. Physical and neurological examinations were unremarkable besides bilateral hypoacusia. All the laboratory investigation was negative, and brain stem auditory evoked potentials showed deep bilateral deafness in both cases. MRI studies revealed normal inner ears and multifocal white matter areas of slight low signal on T1-weighted images and high signal on FLAIR images. The follow-up MRI studies and neurological examinations did not demonstrate alterations in the previous findings.


CONCLUSIONS
Pediatric patients with SSHL may present cerebral white matter signal abnormalities at the MRI as the only finding. Further studies with larger casuistics need to be conducted to elucidate these findings.
Gasparetto
Emerson L
EL
Hospital das Clínicas, Universidade Federal do Paraná, Curitiba, PR, Brazil. gasparetto@hotmail.com
de Carvalho Neto
Arnolfo
A
Warszawiak
Danny
D
Bruck
Isac
I
Antoniuk
Sérgio
S
dos Santos
Lúcia H C
LH
D001921:Brain / Q000473:pathology*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D016057:Evoked Potentials, Auditory, Brain Stem; D006312:Hearing Loss, Bilateral / Q000209:etiology*; D006319:Hearing Loss, Sensorineural / Q000209:etiology*; D003639:Hearing Loss, Sudden / Q000209:etiology*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male