CT SCREENING FOR TEMPORAL BONE ABNORMALITIES IN IDIOPATHIC BILATERAL SENSORINEURAL HEARING-LOSS

Bilateral sensorineural hearing loss can be caused by a variety of tem poral bone abnormalities including primary cochlear otosclerosis,local and systemic bony diseases and some metabolic conditions. These may b e identified using computerized tomography (CT), with attenuation reco rdings taken across the cochlear capsule (CT densitometry). Eighty pat ients with bilateral sensorineural hearing loss were screened over a p eriod of six and a half years using this technique, and only three cas es (3.8 per cent) of treatable disease were detected. Positive yields may be increased by screening selected cases with other clinical or bi ochemical stigmata of temporal bone disease.