- Design
- Retrospective single-centre cohort
- Population
- 455 patients (910 ears) with Ménière's disease and gadolinium inner ear MRI
- Primary outcome
- Association of hydrops grade and age with hearing thresholds
- Effect
- Higher hydrops grade associated with greater hearing loss (P<0.05); age not associated with hydrops grade
A Chinese tertiary centre reviewed 455 patients (910 ears) with Ménière's disease who had gadolinium-enhanced inner ear MRI, grading vestibular and cochlear endolymphatic hydrops and comparing it with pure-tone thresholds.
Higher hydrops grades were consistently associated with worse hearing in unilateral and bilateral disease. Age did not predict hydrops severity. Age added to hearing loss mainly at lower hydrops grades, and its effect faded once hydrops was advanced.
Inner ear MRI for hydrops is not widely available in India, but where it is, the grade gives information about the hearing likely to be found and, by implication, how far the disease has progressed. It is retrospective and does not show whether hydrops grade predicts future decline.
- Consider hydrops MRI grade alongside audiometry when counselling patients with Ménière's disease.
- Expect greater hearing loss with higher hydrops grades.
- Account for age-related loss when interpreting hearing in mild hydrops.
- Repeat audiometry over time; a single MRI does not predict the course.
Why it matters
It links an imaging grade to the outcome patients care about most.
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