title: Otologic manifestations of acoustic neuroma.
abstract: CONCLUSIONS
  Many patients with acoustic neuroma (AN) experience hearing loss and tinnitus. Time from first symptoms to diagnosis can be considerable. AN should be suspected, and MRI scans performed, in patients with hearing loss accompanied by asymmetry, tinnitus, low speech discrimination score (SDS), and abnormal auditory brainstem response (ABR).
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To determine the otorhinolaryngological factors associated with AN by analyzing the clinical manifestations and diagnostic test results of patients with AN before MRI scanning.
  
  
  METHODS
  This study enrolled 114 patients definitively diagnosed with AN after visiting the Ear-Nose-and-Throat and Neurosurgery Departments of Kyung Hee University Medical Center from 2001 to 2013. Factors retrospectively analyzed included patient age, gender, major symptoms, accompanying symptoms, symptom duration, pure-tone audiometry, SDS, asymmetry, tinnitogram, ABR, and MRI scan results.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The main symptom of AN was hearing loss, and the most frequent accompanying symptom was tinnitus. More severe deafness correlated significantly with lower SDS (p < 0.05). Asymmetric hearing was observed in 75 of 116 patients (64.6%), and mean SDS was 73.1 ± 34.1%. Of patients with latencies of waves I, III, and V on ABR tests, 56.1%, 92.4%, and 92.4%, had interaural latency differences ≥0.2 ms. However, audiometry results did not correlate with lesion site or tumor size (p > 0.05).
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosurgery, School of Medicine.
authors.forename: Sung Ho
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Seok Keun
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Choi
authors.forename: Young Jin
authors.initials: YJ
authors.lastname: Lim
authors.forename: Hee Yong
authors.initials: HY
authors.lastname: Chung
authors.forename: Joon Hyung
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Yeo
authors.forename: Se Young
authors.initials: SY
authors.lastname: Na
authors.forename: Sang Hoon
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Seung Geun
authors.initials: SG
authors.lastname: Yeo
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001301:Audiometry, Pure-Tone; D016057:Evoked Potentials, Auditory, Brain Stem; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009464:Neuroma, Acoustic / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013063:Speech Discrimination Tests
keywords: Otorhinolaryngological factors; auditory brainstem response; hearing loss; tinnitus