Automated intra-cochlear DVT Image Analysis of 149 Cochlear Implant Users: Findings

Intra-cochlear anatomical variability combined with variability in CI electrode placement are considered to be important factors for explaining some of the variability of CI outcomes. Observations in clinical populations have so far been limited by the unavailability of automated, accurate and robust techniques allowing the systematic processing of clinical CT images of the cochlea within the clinical routine.

Using Oticon Medical’s Nautilus imaging research software, this study addresses intra-cochlear anatomical variability, electrode placement, and their correlations to CI therapy metrics and perceptual outcomes in 149 CI users implanted with an Oticon Medical device. Nautilus is a software, which automatically determines relevant metrics of the individual cochlea and the electrode position from a given CT image.

168 images (91 left ears, 77 right ears) acquired with conventional clinical CT or Cone-Beam CT were processed by Oticon Medical’s Nautilus research tool. Output metrics from the Nautilus tool were then compared with clinical data associated with the corresponding 149 patients including C- and T- levels, Freiburger monosyllable scores, and HSM sentence intelligibility at 6 and 12 months after implantation.

Significant variability in cochlear anatomy and electrode placement was observed in the dataset. Statistically significant associations were found between metrics of cochlear anatomy and electrode placement including insertion depth. Measures related to electrode placement itself correlated with both C- and T- levels and speech outcomes.

Publication History

Article published online:
24 May 2022