Korean J Radiol.  2012 Jun;13(3):363-367. 10.3348/kjr.2012.13.3.363.

Eosinophilic Otitis Media: CT and MRI Findings and Literature Review

• Chung WJ
• Lee JH
• Lim HK
• Yoon TH
• Cho KJ
• Baek JH

• KMID: 1372859
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.3348/kjr.2012.13.3.363

Abstract

Eosinophilic otitis media (EOM) is a relatively rare, intractable, middle ear disease with extremely viscous mucoid effusion containing eosinophils. EOM is associated with adult bronchial asthma and nasal allergies. Conventional treatments for otitis media with effusion (OME) or for chronic otitis media (COM), like tympanoplasty or mastoidectomy, when performed for the treatment of EOM, can induce severe complications such as deafness. Therefore, it should be differentiated from the usual type of OME or COM. To our knowledge, the clinical and imaging findings of EOM of temporal bone are not well-known to radiologists. We report here the CT and MRI findings of two EOM cases and review the clinical and histopathologic findings of this recently described disease entity.

Keyword

Eosinophilic otitis media; Imaging findings of EOM

MeSH Terms

Adult
Diagnosis, Differential
Eosinophilia/*diagnosis/radiography/surgery
Female
Humans
*Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Otitis Media/*diagnosis/radiography/surgery
Otoscopy
Reoperation
*Tomography, X-Ray Computed

Figure

• 

  Fig. 1 37-year-old woman with progressive, bilateral hearing disturbance. (A) TBCT shows complete soft-tissue filling in bilateral middle ear cavities (arrow) and sclerotic mastoid. No bony erosion, except for minimal marginal erosion of ossicular chain is seen. Ethmoid sinuses are completely obliterated by thickened mucosa, which is also seen in sphenoid sinuses. (B-D) TBMR shows T1 low- (B) and T2 intermediate- (C) signal-intensity soft-tissue lesions filling both middle ear cavities (arrow) with mild heterogeneous contrast enhancement (D) suggesting granulation tissue. TBCT = temporal bone CT

• 

  Fig. 2 33-year-old man with persistent otorrhea. A, B. Axial and coronal TBCT images demonstrate soft-tissue lesions bulging from bilateral middle-ear cavities and filling mastoid air cells. There is no evidence of bony erosion except for bony defect at right mastoid from previous surgery. Mucosal thickening of bilateral maxillary sinus is also shown. C, D. Bilateral Eustachian tubes are clearly traced on serial coronal TBCT images (arrows). TBCT = temporal bone CT

Reference

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