Bendixdam9634

Conclusions Although the primary use of ECochG continues to be in the diagnosis of MD, we report on 2 additional clinical applications for this important test of inner ear/auditory nerve function. First, a preliminary study on a small sample of subjects indicates that ECochG may also be useful in predicting MD prior to the onset of symptoms in individuals who may be genetically predisposed to developing it. Second, through a series of case studies, we demonstrate how ECochG is used to help diagnose superior semicircular canal dehiscence and monitor the status of the inner ear during the surgical repair of this condition. Finally, normative values for clinically important components of the electrocochleogram based on tympanic membrane recordings have been established from a large sample of subjects.Purpose Most adult cochlear implant (CI) users in developed countries benefit from the use of a hearing aid in conjunction with their implant device (bimodal hearing). Benefits have also been documented for the use of bilateral CIs for speech perception in quiet, localization, and speech perception in noise. This study attempted to quantify speech perception results for bimodal and bilateral CIs in adults and provide a guide for those considering a 2nd CI. Method Speech perception outcomes were reviewed for 1,394 adults with acquired hearing loss who received a CI at the Melbourne Cochlear Implant Clinic between 2000 and 2015. Results Bimodal and bilateral users significantly outperformed unilateral CI users on consonant-vowel-consonant word recognition in quiet. For the bilateral group, word recognition scores with the 1st CI were predictive of 2nd CI word scores. The analysis suggested that bimodal users who were gaining less than 19% benefit from the nonimplanted ear were likely to perform better with a 2nd implant. Conclusions CI users who score less than 19% on consonant-vowel-consonant words in the nonimplanted ear have a good chance of benefiting from a 2nd implant. Consideration of many other factors including age, hearing goals, medical factors, and the risk to residual hearing also needs to play a part in recommending a 2nd CI.Purpose This study compared the speech reception thresholds (SRTs) and test-retest reliability of the smartphone digits-in-noise (DIN) test coupled to various sound-field transducers. Method Fifty normal-hearing participants (bilateral pure- tone thresholds 0.5-8kHz ≤ 15dB HL) between the ages of 18 and 25 years (M = 20, SD = ±1.9) were recruited. The study used a repeated measure counterbalanced Latin square design to compare the SRTs of the smartphone DIN test recorded with earphones, 2 smartphone speakers, and 2 external loudspeakers in a sound booth. Test-retest reliability across sound field conditions was also determined. Selleckchem USP25/28 inhibitor AZ1 Results Mean SRTs across earphone and different sound field transducers ranged from -11.3 (SD = 0.8) to -11.7 (SD = 1.2). SRTs across the 4 different loudspeaker transducers and earphones were not significantly different (p > .05) between test and retest sessions. Conclusion The smartphone DIN test is reliable and can be conducted using various sound field transducers in a sound booth. To allow home-based testing without earphones, with special application to aided performance for speech-in-noise testing, the smartphone DIN test should be evaluated in home environments.Purpose The purpose of this report was to demonstrate the value of incorporating nonparametric item response theory in the development and refinement of patient- reported outcome measures for hearing. Conclusions Nonparametric item response theory can be useful in the development and refinement of patient-reported outcome measures for hearing. These methods are particularly useful as an alternative to exploratory factor analysis to determine the number of underlying abilities or traits represented by a scale when the items have ordered-categorical responses.Purpose Despite the current legislative indications toward the digitization of patient health records, 80% of health data are unstructured and in a format that cannot be used in electronic archives or in registries of diseases. An innovative automated system is here proposed to efficiently retrieve and digitize clinical information from original unstructured ear, nose, and throat (ENT) medical records, in order to reduce the manual workload in the retrieval and digitization process. Method The system, based on an eHealth technology named cognitive computing, interprets medical reports to transform unstructured clinical data (e.g., narrative text) into a structured digital format. The system has been tailored to handle the reports of aged cochlear implant (CI) patients by digitizing the information typically requested in electronic CI registries and by the current ENT/audiology guidelines. Results were obtained from the reports generated by an outpatient ENT care service from 52 older adult CI patients. Results The system allowed a quick and automated interpretation and retrieval of all the information required, such as the patient's medical history, risk factors, examination outcomes, communicative performances before and after CI implantation, and CI settings. The accuracy of the system in correctly interpreting and retrieving the above information from the original unstructured medical reports was very good (recall = 0.78; precision = 0.95). The system allowed to reduce the time needed to manually digitize the information from 20-30 min/report to only 20 s/report. Conclusion The proposed system is a viable solution for the automated digitization of unstructured health data as recommended by the ENT/audiology clinical best practices.Objectives To develop a Mandarin version of the Hearing in Noise Test for Children (MHINT-C) and examine the maturational effects on sentence recognition.Design Sentences suitable for evaluating children aged 6-18 years were selected from the adult MHINT to form 12 lists of 10 MHINT-C sentences (Study 1). List equivalence, inter-list reliability, response variability, and maturational effects on sentence recognition were examined using the MHINT-C (Study 2).Study sample A total of 246 children aged 6.1-17.11 years were included. Six children participated in Study 1; the rest were included in Study 2. To compare these results with adults, 20 native Mandarin-speaking adults aged 18 or above were included in Study 2.Results MHINT-C list equivalency, inter-list reliability, and response variability were similar to those of the adult MHINT and the Cantonese HINT for children. Sentence recognition in children reached adult-like performance around age 8 in quiet and at ages 15 and 14 in front and side noise conditions, respectively.Conclusions The MHINT-C can reliably measure sentence recognition in quiet and noise in Mandarin-speaking children. Age-specific correction factors were established.Objective The aim of this cross sectional study was to evaluate frequency of neuropathic back pain in ankylosing spondylitis (AS) patients and to determine the relation with disease variables and occurrence of neuropathic pain.Methods Fifty-eight AS patients who were not having any comorbid disease and/or using drugs that would cause neuropathy, were recruited to the study. Demographic properties and clinical characteristics (functional status and disease activity assessed by BASFI and BASDAI respectively, ESR, CRP) and quality of life determined by AS quality of life-QoL questionnaire, were recorded. The neuropathic property of back pain was assessed by both Leeds Assessment of Neuropathic symptoms and signs (LANSS) and Douleur Neuropathique 4 (DN4) scales.Results 58 AS patients (17 female, 41 male) with a mean age of 45 ± 18 years were included. 33 patients (56.9%) and 31 patients (53.4%) were defined as having neuropathic pain depending on the LANSS (scores >12) and DN4 (scores >4) questionnaire scores respectively. The mean score of LANSS scale was correlated with ASQoL, BASFI, BASDAI, and DN4; and the mean score of DN4 scale was correlated with ASQoL, BASFI and LANSS. The mean levels of BASFI and ASQoL scores were significantly higher in patients having neuropathic pain than in patients not having (p  less then  0.05).Conclusion Neuropathic pain is common and determined in more than half of the patients with AS and related with functional status and quality of life. Diagnosis and treatment of neuropathic pain are warranted in order to increase functional ability and quality of life in patients suffering from AS.Aim To assemble, characterize and assess the antifungal effects of a new fluconazole (FLZ)-carrier nanosystem. Materials & methods The nanosystem was prepared by loading FLZ on chitosan (CS)-coated iron oxide nanoparticles (IONPs). Antifungal effects were evaluated on planktonic cells (by minimum inhibitory concentration determination) and on biofilms (by quantification of cultivable cells, total biomass, metabolism and extracellular matrix) of Candida albicans and Candida glabrata. Results Characterization results ratified the formation of a nanosystem ( less then 320 nm) with FLZ successfully embedded. IONPs-CS-FLZ nanosystem reduced minimum inhibitory concentration values and, in general, showed similar antibiofilm effects compared with FLZ alone. Conclusion IONPs-CS-FLZ nanosystem was more effective than FLZ mainly in inhibiting Candida planktonic cells. This nanocarrier has potential to fight fungal infections.Aim Rapid identification of bacteria would facilitate timely initiation of therapy and improve cost-effectiveness of treatment. Traditional methods (culture, PCR) require reagents, consumables and hours to days to complete the identification. In this study, we examined whether differential mobility spectrometry could classify most common bacterial species, genera and between Gram status within minutes. Materials & methods Cultured bacterial sample gaseous headspaces were measured with differential mobility spectrometry and data analyzed using k-nearest-neighbor and leave-one-out cross-validation. Results Differential mobility spectrometry achieved a correct classification rate 70.7% for all bacterial species. For bacterial genera, the rate was 77.6% and between Gram status, 89.1%. Conclusion Largest difficulties arose in distinguishing bacteria of the same genus. Future improvement of the sensor characteristics may improve the classification accuracy.Coculture played a major role in clinical microbiology by elucidating strict intracellular bacteria era. Since some of these bacteria are human pathogens, in-depth studies at the strain level are necessary to better understand their pathologies and treatment. Over the last decades, culture-independent tools have taken over the diagnostic procedure at the expense of coculture. These tools, although proven to be rapid and efficient, cannot overcome the need to culture the bacteria, as strain isolation remains a key factor to understanding its epidemiology, virulence and antibiotic susceptibility testing. Moreover, strain availability allows the development of molecular and serological tools, and remains crucial for taxonomy. This review revisits the current status of culture, its advantages, drawbacks and future needs.