STUTTERING: INITIATING FACTORS, EVOLUTION, HEALING PERSPECTIVES.

Despite high amount of incidents, no scientific paper existed up to now in Georgia dealing with the stuttering. In present essay the views over are collated. It is confirmed that the phenomenon reflects the speech rate and/or the rhythm distortions created by convulsive type involuntary contractions of voice-producing muscles.

Correlation between Vestibular Evoked Myogenic Potentials and Disease Progression in Ménière's Disease.

Objective: To assess the relationship between ocular (oVEMPs) and cervical (cVEMPs) vestibular evoked myogenic potentials and audiometrically determined clinical stage in Ménière's disease (MD).

Methods: Thirty-four unilateral MD patients and 30 healthy volunteers were included in the study. Pure-tone hearing levels, oVEMPs, cVEMPs, and videonystagmography results were analyzed and compared between the groups.

EFFECT OF SMOKING ON TRASIENTLY EVOKED OTOACOUSTIC EMISSION.

Evoked otoacoustic emissions, EOAEs, are proved to be sounds aroused in response to external acoustic stimulus by the cochlear outer hair cells. Transiently evoked otoacoustic emissions, TEOAEs, are the most clinically utilized EOAEs. TEOAEs are detectable in 98% of people with normal hearing, regardless of age or sex, while two ears of any individual produce similar TEOAEs waveforms.

Cytomegalovirus bearing in children with sensorineural hearing losses.

The rate of bearing of cytomegalovirus, CMV, has been estimated in children suffering from inborn or newborn types of a sensorineural hearing loss of hard-to-severe degrees. The test group comprised 15 hearing-loss children of 3-6 years of age. The control group included accidentally selected 30 healthy children of the same age without any hearing complains.

Acoustic neuroma diagnosis.

Pure tone audiometry, PTA, has been regarded as an initial step when starting acoustic neuroma, AN, diagnostic service. If observing unilateral/asymmetrical sensorineural hearing loss, electronystagmography, ENG, and registration of auditory brainstem responses, ABRs, are instructed to perform. The measures of the methods are listed appearing particularly effective for AN detecting.

Laser Doppler vibrometry of the middle ear in humans: derivation dependence, variability, and bilateral differences.

Objective: Derivation dependence, inter- and intrasubject/intertest variability, bilateral differences of the eardrum vibration characteristics have been investigated using laser Doppler vibrometry (LDV).

Material And Methods: A total of 31 normally hearing adults were examined. In each subject, both ears were consecutively stimulated by the chirp acoustic stimulus that covered 500-3700-Hz frequencies.

Electrically evoked auditory brainstem response in cochlear implant users.

The waveforms and parameters of electrically evoked auditory brainstem responses, eeABRs, registered in cochlear implant users, were compared with those of acoustically evoked auditory brainstem responses, aeABRs, recorded in normally hearing subjects. The eeABRs, in contrast to the aeABRs, contained dubious Wave IV, while missed Waves VI and VII. The eeABRs possessed also shorter peak-latencies, shorter inter-peak intervals, and greater amplitudes.

Reflection of bounce phenomenon in TEOAE in humans: dependence upon test-stimulus parameters.

The bounce phenomenon signifies an alteration of hearing after presentation of low-frequency loud tones. Generally, it implies an initial improvement and a following reduction in auditory sensitivity that reaching peaks at 1- and 3-min intervals of the post-exposure time, respectively. The dependence of the bounce upon test-stimulus parameters has been investigated in the present study.

Does vitamin E prevent gentamicin-induced ototoxicity?

A randomized double-blind study was performed to check the protective efficacy of vitamin E against aminoglycoside ototoxicity. 52 patients scheduled for gentamicin therapy because of acute pulmonary infections have been tested. Volunteers were randomly assigned to receive additionally either vitamin E or placebo.

Reflection of bounce phenomenon in DPOAE: a human study.

The behavior of distortion product otoacoustic emission, DPOAE, has been studied in normally hearing subjects after application of a tone of 0.25-kHz frequency and of 80-dB nHL intensity during 3 min. The bounce phenomenon has correspondingly been investigated just in humans and just via the objective approach.

The hearing system under thyroid hypofunction.

The auditory system has been investigated in 50 patients with thyroid hypofunction. Hearing thresholds were estimated by the pure tone audiometry, PTA. The brief tone audiometry, BTA, was carried out, evaluating differences between thresholds of shorter and longer 1-kHz tonal stimuli, 20 and 200 ms, respectively.

The proper time for hearing screening in newborns.

The proper time for hearing screening in newborns via recordings of transiently evoked otoacoustic emission, TEOAE, has been estimated. 269 healthy neonates were investigated during five consecutive days after birth. On the first day, the results of screening were positive in 51 newborns only, 19.

Interaural pitch perception difference: dependence upon internal and external factors.

Tone pulses were presented consecutively to one and the other ear in normally hearing musicians. The frequency of pulses in one, reference ear was fixed. That in the other, test ear varied to achieve the same pitch of tones in both ears.

Age-related hearing loss: gender differences.

Hearing thresholds were measured in 224 Tbilisi citizens, 128 females and 96 males, at the frequencies of 0.125-16 kHz. None of the subjects reported any job-related noise exposures or other potentially confounding history.

Reflection of bounce phenomenon in TEOAE in humans: dependence upon exposure parameters.

The bounce phenomenon is an alteration of hearing acuity after presentation of loud tones. Generally, it implies the improvement in hearing acuity that followed by the worsening. The dependence of the bounce upon exposure stimulus parameters has been evaluated in the present study.

Behavior of evoked otoacoustic emission under low-frequency tone exposure: Objective study of the bounce phenomenon in humans.

The bounce phenomenon has been investigated in humans, evaluating alterations of click evoked otoacoustic emission (EOAE) after presentation of 250-Hz frequency loud tones during 3 min. EOAE changes were manifested in initial augmentation followed by reduction, peaking at 1 and 3 min of post-exposure time, respectively. Recoveries took 5-7 min afterwards.

Visualization of stimulation patterns in cochlear implants: application to event-related potentials (P300) in cochlear implant users.

Auditory P300 potentials obtained in cochlear implant users were evoked with tone bursts designed to reflect the frequency stimulation patterns of intracochlear electrodes. To visualize these stimulation patterns in MED-EL COMBI 40+ cochlear implants, we calculated color-coded plots of the charge of each stimulus pulse as a function of time and stimulation channel (stimulograms). The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of stimulation patterns on event-related potentials, such as the P300.

Auditory brainstem, middle-latency, and slow cortical responses in multiple sclerosis.

The efficacy of auditory brainstem responses (ABRs), middle-latency responses (MLRs), and slow cortical potentials (SCPs) has been evaluated in 40 patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). ABRs and MLRs were averaged to clicks and SCPs to 1-kHz tone bursts of 70-dB nHL intensity. ABR, MLR, and SCP abnormalities were detected in 65.

[Effect of stimulus rise time and high-pass masking on early auditory evoked potentials].

Background: Problems of frequency-specific objective assessment of hearing threshold by means of auditory brainstem response (ABR) have been discussed recently. While a number of workers have recommended methods of selective masking to improve the frequency specificity, others believe that frequency-specific potentials can also be obtained without masking. In this context, the effects of rise-decay time and high-pass masking on ABRs were investigated.

Auditory brainstem response, middle-latency response, and slow cortical potential in patients with partial epilepsy.

Auditory brainstem responses (ABRs), middle-latency responses (MLRs), and slow cortical potentials (SCPs) have been recorded in patients with partial epilepsy previously untreated by anticonvulsants. Peak latencies, interpeak intervals, and amplitudes were estimated and the mean group values were compared with the respective data in age- and gender-matched healthy individuals. Neither ABRs nor MLRs in the patients differed significantly from those in the control group.

[Contralateral modification of transitory evoked otoacoustic emissions].

Background: In recent publications the influence of contralateral white noise on transient evoked otoacoustic emissions (TEOAE) is discussed with regard on contributions of the efferent auditory system.

Methods: In the present study the effects have been investigated with regards to middle-ear muscles, efferents and cross hearing. TEOAE to monaural 40-80 dB SPL clicks were recorded in normal-hearing adults under simultaneous presentation of 20-60 dB SPL broadband noise to the contralateral ear.

Effects of the conditioning click on click-evoked otoacoustic emission.

The effects of the preceding (conditioning) click on the evoked otoacoustic emission (EOAE) to the following (test) click were investigated in normally hearing adults. To overcome distortions due to superimposition of the test EOAE on the EOAE to the conditioning click, a special stimulation and response subtraction procedure was utilized. The conditioning stimulus was found to suppress the test EOAE.