Objective: Twenty-two million Americans or roughly 8% of the population are hearing impaired. This affects more than just the ability for one to hear. In the last three decades, younger Americans have shown a sharp increase in hearing impairment. Hearing loss affects social and emotional well being and thus has the ability to decrease one's quality of life. This study was designed to examine the association between smoking, workplace chemical exposure, and hearing loss.Methods: This cross-sectional population-based study was conducted in an occupational health clinic setting in Virginia. The study population consisted of employees from local businesses who visited the clinic during the period of 1/1/03 to 1/1/05 for pure tone audiometry. Chart reviews supplemented by telephone interviews were conducted to extract data for analysis. All study subjects were eligible to participate except for those who were unable to communicate due to a language barrier. Prevalence and crude prevalence ratios were calculated. Adjusted prevalence ratios and prevalence odds ratios were calculated using Cox and logistic regression models. Data entry and statistical analysis were accomplished with the SPSS Data Builder and the SPSS 13.0 statistical software. SAS statistical software was also used for a portion of the statistical analysis.Results: In a Cox regression model controlling for many potential confounding factors (age, race, smoking, chemical exposure, military service, as well as others) cigarette smoking was not associated with hearing loss PR(95% CI), 1.0 (0.7, 1.3). Similarly, exposure to chemicals was not associated with hearing loss 1.1 (0.7, 1.6).Conclusion: This study did not find an association between cigarette smoking and hearing loss and exposure to industrial chemicals and hearing loss in persons who worked in a noisy occupational environment.

Posttraumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, is associated with enduring and profound impairments affecting emotional stability and the ability to perform fundamental activities. In our VA tinnitus clinic population, more than 35% of the patients carry the diagnosis. Perhaps of greater concern, PTSD is generally acknowledged to be substantially underreported among children (Herman, 1997). Individuals with PTSD experience disruptions to a variety of life functions, intrusive memories, and other powerful symptoms. Functional and emotional consequences of trauma are measured using a variety of handicap scales, and several physiological measures such as EEG and EKG are altered by the effects of trauma. Additionally, fMRI and PET scans reveal enduring changes to neural structures such as the hippocampus following exposure to traumatic events (Bremner, 2002). In this eAudiology Web seminar, we will stress that PTSD should be viewed as a psychological injury; the trauma-provoked physiologic changes that influence not only an individual's to function, but also their ability to obtain benefit from medical care. This presentation will also review the history of the PTSD diagnosis and identify specific elements of the injury that are of significance to audiologists.

No description available.

The aim of the study was to determine the audiological status of adolescents exposed to recreational noise and investigate the possible association between these results and oxidative stress markers. 44 individuals were evaluated, aged between 12 and 19 with normal hearing in the cross-sectional study, and 27 subjects remained in the longitudinal study. All individuals completed questionnaires regarding young people's attitudes to noise, auditory behavior and complaint of tinnitus, and hearing screening conducted by audiometry, tympanometry, recording and analysis of transient evoked otoacoustic emissions and suppression effect. Urine analysis were performed for markers of oxidative stress, from production tests of reactive oxygen species (ROS) from the ROS-DCFH-DA test and DNA damage from the PicoGreen DNA test. It was found that the adolescents had an inadequate noise exposure profile related to exposure habits at high sound pressure levels, and remained with this profile over time. There was considerable prevalence of bilateral tinnitus (31,82%), and the adolescents with the present complaint presented an ease to ignore external noises than those who did not have tinnitus. The presence of tinnitus was directly related to history of earaches (p=0,001), to the increased time of daily noise exposure reported by the teenagers (p=0,049) and the functionality of the olivocochlear system (p=0,050; 0,001). A considerable part of the sample presented absence of the suppression effect in both ears, showing change in the functioning of the olivocochlear system early. Adolescents who showed high concentrations of ROS had a higher chance of presenting higher frequency of risk factors for hearing, and showed higher levels of ROS over time. In the DNA Picogreen test, teens showed a significant increase related to DNA damage over time. The results showed an obvious public health problem that must be addressed by prevention and guidance programs to reduce or minimize risks to hearing health at this stage of life. / O objetivo do estudo foi determinar o status audiológico de adolescentes expostos a ruídos de lazer e investigar uma possível associação entre estes resultados e marcadores de estresse oxidativo. Foram avaliados 44 indivíduos, com idades entre 12 e 19 anos, com audição normal, no estudo transversal, e 27 indivíduos permaneceram na pesquisa no estudo longitudinal. Todos responderam a questionários referentes as atitudes da juventude frente ao ruído, ao comportamento auditivo e a queixa de zumbido e realizaram triagem auditiva por meio de audiometria, timpanometria, registro e análise das emissões otoacústicas evocadas transientes e efeito de supressão. Foram realizadas análises de urina para marcadores de estresse oxidativo, a partir de testes de quantificação de espécies reativas de oxigênio (ERO) a partir do teste ERO-DCFH-DA e dano no DNA a partir do teste DNA picogreen. Encontrou-se que os adolescentes apresentaram um perfil de exposição sonora inadequado em relação aos hábitos de exposição a níveis de pressão sonora elevado, e permaneceram com este perfil ao longo do tempo. Houve uma prevalência considerável de zumbido bilateral (31,82%), sendo que os adolescentes com a presente queixa apresentaram uma maior facilidade em ignorar barulhos externos do que os que não apresentaram zumbido. A presença de zumbido foi diretamente relacionada a histórico de dores de ouvido (p=0,001), ao o aumento do tempo de exposição sonora diário referido pelos adolescentes (p=0,049) e a funcionalidade do sistema olivococlear medial (p=0,050; 0,001). Uma parte considerável da amostra apresentou ausência do efeito de supressão em ambas as orelhas, demonstrando alteração do funcionamento do sistema olivococlear medial precocemente. Os adolescentes que apresentaram concentrações elevadas de ERO tiveram uma maior chance de apresentar maior frequência de fatores de risco para a audição, e apresentaram valores mais altos de ERO ao longo do tempo. No teste DNA Picogreen os adolescentes apresentaram um aumento significativo em relação a danos no DNA ao longo do tempo. Os resultados encontrados mostraram um problema evidente de saúde pública que deve ser abordado a partir de programas de prevenção e orientação, para se reduzir ou minimizar os riscos para a saúde auditiva nesta etapa da vida.

No description available.

The Epidemiology of Hearing Loss Study (EHLS) conducted in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, was a population-based study that focused on the prevalence of hearing loss among 3,753 participants between 1993 and 1995. This article reports the results of several auditory measures from 999 veteran and 590 nonveteran males 48 to 92 years of age included in the EHLS. The auditory measures included pure tone thresholds, tympanometry and acoustic reflexes, word recognition in quiet and in competing message, and the Hearing Handicap Inventory for the Elderly-Screening (HHIE-S) version. Hearing loss in the auditory domains of pure tone thresholds, word recognition in quiet, and word recognition in competing message increased with age but were not significantly different for the veterans and nonveterans. No significant differences were found between participant groups on the HHIE-S; however, regarding hearing aid usage, mixed differences were found.

碩士 / 國立成功大學 / 生理學研究所 / 103 / While acoustic reflexes to loud sounds are well studied (viz., startle, head orienting, pinna, and vibrissa freezing responses), those to soft sounds remain unknown. Tinnitus, a leading hearing disorder, typically affects low intensity hearing (i.e., phantom sound perception of 〈30 dB SPL). Here we speculate that low-intensity acoustic reflexes, if in existence, could reflect the phenomenon of masking (or hearing loss) that accompanies tinnitus. The prevailing theory of tinnitus is that an initial hearing loss leads to an increased central gain to compensate the impaired intensity coding, with the unwanted side-effect of a phantom sound percept (tinnitus) and hyperacusis. The phantom sound produces a masking effect (or hearing loss) of soft sounds perceived similar to the tinnitus percept. Based on such masking, experimental tinnitus is assessed with either the traditional polydypsia avoidance or the more recent prepulse inhibition of acoustic startle reflex. These two methods have shortcomings like (a) time-consuming behavioral training or (b) the use of loud sound stimuli, hence inappropriate for studying the low level hearing in tinnitus. Methods that are simple and objective to estimate low intensity hearing are therefore in demand. Here, we developed a behavioral setup equipped with a digital imaging system designed to detect in awake rats the acoustic reflexes induced by soft sounds. Custom-made software was written to quantify the subtle body movements by optimizing the region of interest in the rat images. We found that for a normal rat, following the sudden presentation of a soft sound, its regular breathing pattern showed occasional perturbations. The perturbation in breathing was identified as an arrest in the respiratory-driven regular displacement of chest or abdomen. We coined this response the ‘acoustic perturbation of breathing (APB)’. We also found that not all sounds we tested had the same effectiveness in inducing APB: e.g., the rubbing sound was the most effective among three tested stimuli. The rubbing sound was therefore adopted as the stimulus for this study. Before the experiment, rats in the exposed group were first exposed during their early life (postnatal week-4) to a moderate level tone (4 kHz, 65 dB SPL, 8 hrs/day). From the previous studies of this laboratory, the same sound-exposure has led to enlarged neurons in the auditory cortex, midbrain and the descending system, consistent with the presence of tinnitus. Compared with other tinnitus-models (e.g., loud sound exposure, salicylate overdose), this early sound-exposure mode, apart from other accompanying neural plasticity, is likely closer to the human case as most tinnitus occurs with senility (likely due to, among other factors, the life-long sound exposure at moderate levels). APB in early sound-exposed rats was depressed when compared with the control, while other acoustic reflexes were not. We interpret this finding in the exposed animals as a masking of low intensity hearing likely associated with tinnitus. We conclude that the APB (reported here for the first time) is useful for assessing low intensity hearing loss associated with tinnitus.

S rostoucím množstvím shromažďovaných a ukládaných dat roste také potřeba a zájem majitelů těchto dat o využití jejich potenciálu k dalšímu rozhodování. Proto se vyvíjí nové přístupy a způsoby vycházející z informatiky, statistiky a oblasti strojového učení, které se této potřebě snaží vyhovět. Cílem této diplomové práce je uvést proces dobývání znalostí dat z databází na medicínských datech Tinnitus a představit systémy LISp-Miner a Weka, které daný proces podporují. Obsahem teoretické části diplomové práce je shrnutí základních charakteristik a přístupů procesu dobývání znalostí. Praktická část diplomové práce je věnována realizaci celého procesu v jednotlivých krocích. V samotném kroku modelování jsou využity již zmíněné systémy akademické LISp-Miner a Weka. Poslední část praktické části práce patří prezentaci dosažených výsledků a vlastnímu zhodnocení systémů.

Orientador : Oscar Antonio Queiroz Maudonnet / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Ciências Médicas / Made available in DSpace on 2018-07-28T23:13:15Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Mezzalira_Raquel_M.pdf: 22021919 bytes, checksum: 5bc6309b1238914099ab506eba99d56e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2001 / Resumo: O zumbido tem sido reportado por cerca de 80% dos pacientes que visitam, regularmente., o otorrinolaringologista. Na sua avaliação, são comumente usadas audiometria tonal e vocal, imitanciometria, potencial evocado de tronco cerebral, eletrococleografia e emissões otoacústicas. Entretanto, como o sistema cocleovestibular é uma unidade que atua em conjunto, tem sido proposto o uso também dos testes vestibulares na avaliação do zumbido e tem-se observado que muitos pacientes com zumbido apresentam testes vestibulares alterados, mesmo na ausência de vertigem ou outros tipos de tontura. Isso alerta para a necessidade de uma completa avaliação dos sistemas auditivo e vestibularem pacientes portadores de zumbido. o objetivo deste estudo é analisar a contnbuição da avaliação otoneurológica no diagnóstico do zumbido. Foram selecionados pacientes com queixa de zumbidos, associados ou não a outros sintomas e estes indivíduos foram submetidos à avaliação otoneurológica que compreendeu anamnese dirigida para a queixa de zumbido, exame fisico, audiometria tonal e vocal, imitanciometria e exame vestIbular. Foram avaliados 195 pacientes e a avaliação otoneurológica foi conclusiva em 72.8% dos casos, chegando-se a um provável diagnóstico etiológico, sendo inconclusiva nos restantes 27.2%. A análise estatística mostrou diferença significativa entre os dois grupos. O presente estudo evidenciou que a avaliação otoneurológica mostrou-se eficaz no estudo de pacientes com queixa de zumbidos / Abstract: Tinnitus has been reported for around 80% of patients referred to the otolaryngology services. Usually its evaluation is based on the tonal and vocal audiometry, tympanometry, brainstem-evoked potential, electrocochleography and otoacoustic emissions. Although, as the cochleovestibular system works as a unit, it has been proposed the use of vestibular tests to evaluate tinnitus. Many patients with tinnitus have altered vestibular tests even in the absence of vestibular symptoms. It attends for the indication of complete vestibular and audiological evaluation of tinnitus. The aim of this study is to analyze the contribution of otoneurological evaluation in the diagnosis of tinnitus. A group of patients with tinnitus associated or not to others symptoms was selected. The patients were alI submitted to otoneurological evaluation based on directed history taking, physical exam, tonal and vocal audiometry, tympanometry and vestibular examination. A total of 195 patients were analyzed. The otoneurological evaluation was conclusive to the diagnosis in 72,8% and did not contribute to diagnosis in 27,2%. The difference between the two groups was statisticalIy significant. The present study showed that the otoneurological evaluation is efficient and contributes to the etiological diagnosis of tinnitus / Mestrado / Ciencias Biomedicas / Mestre em Ciências Médicas

This session is developed by, and presenters invited by, Hearing, Balance, Tinnitus – Assessment and Intervention: Adult. This presentation will provide an overview of contemporary measures of vestibular function with a focus on advantages, limitations, and clinical usefulness. The implementation and outcome of a triage clinic for patients suspicious of benign paroxysmal positional vertigo will also be described.