MRI of the inner ear.

The recent advances in MRI of the temporal bone brought about by the availability of intravenous contrast agents sensitive to the disruption of blood-brain barrier have further expanded the role of MRI in the evaluation of patients with vestibulocochlear symptoms. Not only can MRI be used to diagnose vestibular schwannomas (and other intracanalicular and cerebellopontine angle lesions mimicking it) with a high degree of accuracy, but it can now identify a variety of inflammatory and neoplastic processes of the membranous labyrinth which, in the past, were only made presumptively and occasionally confirmed by surgery and pathology. This enhanced diagnostic capacity of diseases of the vestibular cochlear system may help in the future to improve the management of these patients.