Diagnostic imaging in clinical neuro-otology.

Advances in magnetic resonance imaging and computed tomography have made a more detailed imaging of the inner ear possible, and magnetic resonance imaging also allows the evaluation of the auditory pathways inside the brainstem. This has led to new possibilities in patients with congenital deafness, cochlear implant candidates, patients with inner ear infection, Tullio phenomenon, acoustic schwannomas and lesions along the auditory pathway, which have been described recently. New animal studies, which have evaluated intracochlear enhancement, encourage radiologists and neuro-otologists to push magnetic resonance imaging techniques even further than the already amazing possibilities that they offer.