Blockage of reuniting duct in Meniere's disease.
CONCLUSIONS
The bony saccular orifice to the bony groove of the ductus reuniens (reuniting duct) could not be visualized in the Meniere's ear with significantly greater frequency compared with normal subjects, which suggests that the reuniting duct is affected by radio-opaque substances in CT findings.


OBJECTIVE
This study investigated a more specific, objective, and simpler strategy to diagnose Meniere's disease by assessing the reuniting duct.


METHODS
We examined the ears of 12 patients with definitely diagnosed unilateral Meniere's disease in stage 3 based on Meniere's disease criteria proposed by the Committee on Hearing and Equilibrium of the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery (AAO-HNS), and the ears of 12 normal control subjects using three-dimensional (3D) cone beam CT.


RESULTS
The bony groove of the reuniting duct between the saccule and cochlea was visualized in all control subjects. However, the bony saccular orifice to the bony groove could not be visualized in the lesional ear of Meniere's patients with significantly greater frequency compared with those of the contralateral non-lesional ears and control ears (p < 0.01). This orifice was not patent in 66.7% (8 of 12 ears) on the lesional side but all contralateral non-lesional ears of the patients and normal control ears were patent.
Yamane
Hideo
H
Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Osaka City University Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka 545-8585, Japan. ent-yamane@med.osaka-cu.ac.jp
Takayama
Masahiro
M
Sunami
Kishiko
K
Sakamoto
Hiramori
H
Imoto
Toshio
T
Anniko
Matti
M
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001301:Audiometry, Pure-Tone; D003051:Cochlea / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000503:physiopathology*; D003053:Cochlear Duct / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000503:physiopathology*; D018159:Endolymphatic Hydrops / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008575:Meniere Disease / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D010037:Otolithic Membrane / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000503:physiopathology; D012444:Saccule and Utricle / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000503:physiopathology*; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed