The cochleogram of the guinea pig.

The cochleogram is an important tool to relate properties of the cochlea (e.g. hair cell loss, damaged hair cells) to their position in the cochlear turns, to calculate the average hair cell density, and to measure the length of the whole cochlea. In this work different methods of plotting cochleograms are compared. We suggest that a sector-wise division of the cochlea for counting a cochleogram has advantages over line diagrams that provide a higher spatial resolution but might lead to misinterpretations of the degree of missing hair cells. The scanning electron microscopic analysis of 171 guinea pig cochleas revealed a mean basilar membrane length of 16.4 +/- 1.4 mm (mean +/- standard deviation) with sector lengths of 6.9, 4.2, 3.2, and 1.9 mm, thus adding relevant information to the morphology of the guinea pig cochlea.