Temporal Bone: An Imaging Atlas

Imaging of the temporal bone has recently been advanced with multidetector CT and high-field MR imaging to the point where radiologists and clinicians must familiarize themselves with anatomy that was previously not resolvable on older generation scanners. Most anatomic reference texts rely on photomicrographs of gross temporal bone dissections and low-power microtomed histological sections to identify clinically relevant anatomy. By contrast, this unique temporal bone atlas uses state of the art imaging technology to display middle and inner ear anatomy in multiplanar two- and three-dimensional formats. In addition to in vivo imaging with standard multidetector CT and 3-T MR, the authors have employed CT and MR microscopy techniques to image temporal bone specimens ex vivo, providing anatomic detail not yet attainable in a clinical imaging practice. Also included is a CD that allows the user to scroll through the CT and MR microscopy datasets in three orthogonal planes of section.

Imaging of the temporal bone has recently been advanced with multidetector CT and high-field MR imaging to the point where radiologists and clinicians must familiarize themselves with anatomy that was previously not resolvable on older generation scanners. Most anatomic reference texts rely on photomicrographs of gross temporal bone dissections and low-power microtomed histological sections to identify clinically relevant anatomy. By contrast, this unique temporal bone atlas uses state of the art imaging technology to display middle and inner ear anatomy in multiplanar two- and three-dimensional formats. In addition to in vivo imaging with standard multidetector CT and 3-T MR, the authors have employed CT and MR microscopy techniques to image temporal bone specimens ex vivo, providing anatomic detail not yet attainable in a clinical imaging practice. Also included is a CD that allows the user to scroll through the CT and MR microscopy datasets in three orthogonal planes of section.  It is the authors’ hope that applying these microscopic imaging techniques to the study of the temporal bone will lead to greater degrees of diagnostic accuracy using current and future clinical imaging tools.