Acoustic Neuroma Screening: MRI asymmetry criteria
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Protocols to determine which patients with asymmetric hearing need an MRI scan to screen for an acoustic neuroma
IRAS ID
166830
Contact name
Matt
Contact email
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 3 months, 0 days
Research summary
Acoustic neuromas are tumours that grow on the nerves of balance (vestibular nerves). They are benign tumours (not malignant) but if left untreated will tend to grow and can be a threat to life. For this reason, early detection is important.
Most patients with early acoustic neuromas will have very few symptoms. As the tumour grows it tends to compress the nerves of hearing and balance, causing hearing loss, tinnitus and imbalance.
For this reason, patients who present with unilateral tinnitus, unilateral hearing loss (of a nerve-type deafness) or unexplained imbalance need to be considered as possible acoustic neuroma sufferers. The only way to confirm the presence of an acoustic neuroma is to perform an MRI scan of the patient’s head.
When it comes to deciding which patients need to have an MRI scan, unilateral tinnitus and chronic imbalance are clear indications, but patients with unilateral hearing loss are less straightforward.
At present in our department, we request about 1000 scans per year for acoustic neuroma screening. We have detected 170 acoustic neuromas in the last 10 years, a pickup rate of 1.7%. In other words, 9830 scans have been done in the last 10 years on patients who do not have acoustic neuromas.
The cost of an MRI scan is around £130, so it costs the Trust £130,000 a year to screen for acoustic neuromas, and the cost of each case detected is £7500. This is an expensive screening program.
It would be very advantageous to find a selection method which will still pick out those patients with acoustic neuromas for scanning, but will not select so many normal individuals. We hope that by looking at various different assessment protocols that we will be able to do just that.
REC name
South West - Frenchay Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
15/SW/0005
Date of REC Opinion
19 Jan 2015
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion