Enriched Acoustic Environment as a customized treatment for tinnitus: A non-controlled longitudinal study.

Tinnitus is a heterogeneous hearing disorder with no cure at present, but some treatments, such as a combination of counselling and sound therapy, can alleviate the discomfort it causes. The sound therapy efficiency depends on both the type of sound stimulus and the time of exposure. This study describes the fundamentals of a personalized sound therapy that stimulates the auditory system with either continuous or sequential sounds whose spectra are adjusted to the hearing levels of the participants.

Genetics and Natural History of Non-pancreatectomized Patients With Congenital Hyperinsulinism Due to Variants in ABCC8.

Context: Patients with congenital hyperinsulinism due to ABCC8 variants generally present severe hypoglycemia and those who do not respond to medical treatment typically undergo pancreatectomy. Few data exist on the natural history of non-pancreatectomized patients.

Objective: This work aims to describe the genetic characteristics and natural history in a cohort of non-pancreatectomized patients with congenital hyperinsulinism due to variants in the ABCC8 gene.

A Heterogeneous Sample of a Spanish Tinnitus Cohort.

Taking into account heterogeneity has been highly recommended in tinnitus studies both to disentangle all diverse factors that can contribute to their complexity and to design personalized treatments. To this aim, a heterogeneous sample of 270 tinnitus subjects is analyzed considering the gender (male/female), hearing condition (hearing-impaired/normal-hearing), and tinnitus severity (compensated/decompensated) subgroups. Two categorical variables (tinnitus laterality and tinnitus sound type) and four quantitative variables (average auditory threshold, age of tinnitus onset, tinnitus frequency, and tinnitus severity) are used.

Comparison of Tinnitus Handicap Inventory and Tinnitus Functional Index as Treatment Outcomes.

Background: Tinnitus is an audiological disorder for which there are no objective measuring tools. Thus, many self-report questionnaires have been proposed to assess its severity. These questionnaires have been judged for their capacity to assess the tinnitus severity at baseline, their sensitivity to treatment-related changes (responsiveness), and their resolution.

Special Issue "New Insights into Pathophysiology, Diagnosis and Treatment of Tinnitus".

We are honoured to have been involved with Brain Sciences in the production of the Special Issue "New Insights into Pathophysiology; Diagnosis and Treatment of Tinnitus" aiming to address recent advances in the field of tinnitus [...

The Role of Manganese in Very Low Birth Weight Infants.

Objectives: High manganese (Mn) levels during fetal growth or prolonged parenteral nutrition (PN) may have adverse effects on neurodevelopment. We aim to report on Mn levels and their short-term impact on clinical course in very low birth weight infants.

Methods: An observational study including newborns with a gestational age (GA) ≤32 weeks and/or ≤1500 g of birth weight (BW).

Efficacy of Sound Therapy for Tinnitus Using an Enriched Acoustic Environment with Hearing-Loss Matched Broadband Noise.

Background: Tinnitus is a rather heterogeneous chronic condition/disorder which is difficult to treat. Some tinnitus treatments combine sound therapy with counselling. The main goal of this study is to report the efficacy of a customized sound therapy combined with counselling on a cohort of 83 tinnitus patients.

Audiometric Characteristics and Tinnitus Features in a Cohort of 170 Spanish Patients.

Background: Tinnitus is a rather prevalent, quite heterogeneous, and difficult to treat auditory disorder. The aim of this article is to provide the design and results of a cross-sectional study related to audiological and tinnitus features in a group of 170 Spanish patients.

Methods: Audiometric characteristics were assessed on the basis of the pure-tone audiometry of both ears in 170 tinnitus patients and 85 control subjects.

Factors associated with falls in hemodialysis patients: a case-control study.

Objective: to identify possible associations between a higher probability of falls among hemodialysis patients and laboratory values, comorbidities, pharmacological treatment, hemodynamic changes, dialysis results and stabilometric alterations.

Method: this was a retrospective case-control study with hemodialysis patients. Patients in a hemodialysis unit who had suffered one or more falls were included in the case group.

Broadband Sound Equalized by The Hearing Loss Curves as an Improved Stimulus for Tinnitus Retraining Therapy-A Pilot, Non-Controlled Observational Study.

Objectives: This study aimed to assess if a short tinnitus treatment, combining counseling with broadband noise filtered by the hearing loss curves, provided significant relief in tinnitus patients.

Materials And Methods: 25 tinnitus subjects of heterogeneous etiology were subjected to sound therapy, 1 hour per day, for 4 months. All of them underwent a unique initial counseling session aimed at undoing previous negative perceptions of tinnitus and highlighting the real expectations from tinnitus therapies.

Utility of fiberoptic bronchoscopy for difficult airway in neonates.

Background: Newborns diagnosed with craniofacial malformations or laryngeal and tracheal alterations may often need advanced airway-management for airway stabilization. Although fiberoptic bronchoscopy (FB) is currently the gold standard for difficult airway management, there is a scarcity of published data on the application of FB in newborns for intubation and controlled extubation (CE).

Objectives: This study describes a case series where FB is used for intubation and/or extubation to manage newborns with difficult airway in either urgent procedures or scheduled ones.

Assessing Auditory Processing Deficits in Tinnitus and Hearing Impaired Patients with the Auditory Behavior Questionnaire.

Auditory processing disorders (APD), tinnitus and hearing loss (HL) are typical issues reported by patients in audiologic clinics. These auditory impairments can be concomitant or mutually excluding. APD are not necessarily accompanied by significant HL, whereas many adults exhibit peripheral HL and typical cognitive deficits often associated with APD.

Acute effect of citrate bath on postdialysis alkalaemia.

Introduction: The correction of metabolic acidosis caused by renal failure is achieved by adding bicarbonate during dialysis. In order to avoid the precipitation of calcium carbonate and magnesium carbonate that takes place in the dialysis fluid (DF) when adding bicarbonate, it is necessary to add an acid, usually acetate, which is not free of side effects. Thus, citrate appears as an advantageous alternative to acetate, despite the fact that its acute effects are not accurately known.

Corrigendum to: Swept-sine noise-induced damage as a hearing loss model for preclinical assays.

[This corrects the article on p. 7 in vol. 7, PMID: 25762930.

Swept-sine noise-induced damage as a hearing loss model for preclinical assays.

Mouse models are key tools for studying cochlear alterations in noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) and for evaluating new therapies. Stimuli used to induce deafness in mice are usually white and octave band noises that include very low frequencies, considering the large mouse auditory range. We designed different sound stimuli, enriched in frequencies up to 20 kHz ("violet" noises) to examine their impact on hearing thresholds and cochlear cytoarchitecture after short exposure.

Acoustic properties of plates with unevenly distributed macroperforations backed by woven meshes.

A hybrid model describing the acoustic properties of plates with macroperforations that can be unevenly distributed on the plate surface and backed by woven or precision woven meshes with microscopic perforations is proposed. The plate perforations may be of circular or rectangular shapes. Since the perforated plate may not necessarily be considered as an equivalent fluid, its impedance is calculated by the Maa model [Noise Control Eng.

Fluid consumption in lithium-treated rats: roles of stimulus novelty and context novelty.

In 5 experiments thirsty rats received an injection of lithium chloride or of saline, and their consumption of fluid was monitored at 5-min intervals for 30 min. The novelty of the fluid and the novelty of the test context was varied. In Experiment 1 a novel fluid (a sucrose solution) was offered in a novel context; in Experiment 2 the fluid was novel and the context was familiar (the home cage); in Experiment 3 the fluid was familiar and the context was novel; and in Experiment 4 both fluid and context were familiar.

Auditory discrimination training for tinnitus treatment: the effect of different paradigms.

Acoustic deprivation, i.e. hearing loss, is responsible for a cascade of processes resulting in reorganisation of the cortex.

Measuring hybrid passive-active sound absorption of a microperforated liner at oblique incidence.

The performance of hybrid passive-active absorbers at normal incidence has been previously demonstrated. However, their feasibility in realistic environments remains to be confirmed. This paper proposes a hybrid passive-active liner absorbing at oblique incidence.

Cortical reorganisation and tinnitus: principles of auditory discrimination training for tinnitus management.

Scientific evidence has proved reorganisation processes in the auditory cortex after sensorineural hearing loss and overstimulation of certain tonotopic cortical areas, as we see in auditory conditioning techniques. Acoustic rehabilitation reduces the impact of these reorganisation changes. Recent theories explain tinnitus mechanisms as a negative consequence of neural plasticity in the central nervous system after a peripheral aggression.

Auditory discrimination therapy (ADT) for tinnitus management.

Auditory discrimination training (ADT) designs a procedure to increase cortical areas responding to trained frequencies (damaged cochlear areas with cortical misrepresentation) and to shrink the neighboring over-represented ones (tinnitus pitch). In a prospective descriptive study of 27 patients with high frequency tinnitus, the severity of the tinnitus was measured using a visual analog scale (VAS) and the tinnitus handicap inventory (THI). Patients performed a 10-min auditory discrimination task twice a day during one month.

Hybrid passive-active absorption of a microperforated panel in free field conditions.

Although hybrid passive-active absorption in impedance tubes has been widely analyzed, its study in more realistic conditions remains to be accomplished. This letter describes the practical measurement of the passive-active absorption coefficient in a free field. The passive absorber consists of a microperforated panel backed by an air cavity and a wooden panel.

Auditory discrimination therapy (ADT) for tinnitus managment: preliminary results.

Conclusion: This clinical assay has demonstrated the efficacy of auditory discrimination therapy (ADT) in tinnitus management compared with a waiting-list group. In all, 43% of the ADT patients improved their tinnitus, and its intensity together with its handicap were statistically decreased (EMB rating: B-2).

Objective: To describe the effect of sound discrimination training on tinnitus.

Low-frequency absorption using a two-layer system with active control of input impedance.

Broadband noise absorption, including low frequencies, may be obtained by a hybrid passive-active two-layer system. A porous layer in front of an air layer provides passive absorption, at medium and high frequencies. Active control of the input impedance of the two-layer system yields absorption at low frequencies.