Interactive effects of hearing aid use and cognitive function in patients with hearing loss.

Background: There has been a significant increase in scientific investigations of the hearing-dementia association among the research on potentially modifiable risk factors for cognitive impairment. We tested two clinical questions. Analysis 1: does persistent hearing aid (HA) use decrease the decline in cognitive function caused by ageing? Analysis 2: does cognitive function at the time of HA fitting predict future persistent HA use?

Methods: This case-control study performed at two referral centres reported data obtained over a 4.

Development of the Reading Cognitive Test Kyoto (ReaCT Kyoto) for Early Detection of Cognitive Decline in Patients with Hearing Loss.

Background: Early detection of cognitive decline allows timely intervention to delay progression of dementia. However, current cognitive evaluation tools often include items delivered via verbal forms of instruction, which can cause poor performance in patients with hearing loss.

Objective: To develop and validate a cognitive screening battery, the Reading Cognitive Test Kyoto (ReaCT Kyoto), comprising test items given through non-verbal instruction.

Stabilization technique for columella using trimmed autologous temporal fascia in type III and IV tympanoplasty--Muffler method.

Conclusion: High success rates of recovery of hearing level in type III and IV tympanoplasty could be achieved by this stabilization technique for columella using trimmed autologous temporal fascia.

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate a new stabilization technique for columella using trimmed autologous temporal fascia in type III and IV tympanoplasty.

Patients And Methods: A total of 55 patients (21 male, 34 female, aged 4-85 years) with chronic otitis media (n=16) and cholesteatoma (n=39) underwent tympanoplasty using this new stabilization technique for columella.

Bilateral congenital ossicular chain disruption mimicking otosclerosis.

A rare case of bilateral congenital ossicular chain disruption whose history and findings mimicked those of otosclerosis is reported. A 54-year-old male consulted us for slowly progressing hearing loss. Audiogram showed bilateral intermediate mixed hearing loss.

Clinical characteristics of delayed endolymphatic hydrops: long-term results of hearing and efficacy of hyperbaric oxygenation therapy.

Conclusion: Diuretics significantly improved hearing in patients with contralateral-type DEH, whereas they did not inpatients with ipsilateral-type DEH.

Objective: We report a review of 26 cases of DEH treated in recent 6 years.

Patients And Methods: The study group comprised 22 contralateral and 4 ipsilateral types of DEH.

Cochlear implants in post-lingually deafened patients.

Conclusion: Post-lingually deafened patients had good speech intelligibility scores with cochlear implantation. The age at the operation, duration of deafness, and the number of electrodes outside the cochlea showed only weak correlation with the postoperative performance, which warrants cochlear implantation in elderly patients and patients with a long history of deafness and leaving dummy electrodes outside the cochlea. Patients with cochlear obstruction showed comparable performance to patients with an open cochlea.

Vertigo as the sole presenting symptom of cerebellopontine angle meningioma.

We report a rare case of cerebellopontine angle (CPA) meningioma whose sole symptom was severe vertigo. A 39-year-old woman with right CPA meningioma was referred for surgery. She experienced severe vertigo for 2 years without any other symptoms.

Non-organic hearing loss.

Conclusion: Most non-organic hearing loss (NOHL) patients were young females. The discrepancy between the results of pure tone audiometry and objective auditory testing suggests NOHL. The diagnostic problem is that objective audiometry is not included in routine examinations and we have to suspect NOHL in order to perform further examination.

Transplantation of bone marrow stromal cells into the cochlea of chinchillas.

This study aimed to evaluate the potential of bone marrow stromal cells for treatment of inner ear diseases. Autologous marrow cells labeled with Dil were implanted into the inner ear of five gentamicin-treated chinchillas. Histological analysis 3 weeks later revealed robust survival of grafted marrow cells in multiple regions within the cochlea.

Expression of calretinin by fetal otocyst cells after transplantation into damaged rat utricle explants.

Severe damage by acoustic overstimulation or ototoxins induces inner ear hair cell loss, resulting in permanent hearing loss and balance disorders because hair cell regeneration scarcely occurs in the inner ear sensory organs of mammals. In this study, to evaluate the possibilities of cell transplantation therapy for damaged inner ear sensory organs, dissociated cell cultures of fetal otocyst cells (FOCs) were established from embryonic day 12.5 (E12.

Transplantation of neural stem cells into explants of rat inner ear.

Damage and loss of hair cells in the inner ear is the most frequent cause of hearing loss and balance disorders. Mammalian hair cells do not regenerate in the conventional ways. To regenerate the hair cell in the mammalian inner ear we transplanted neural stem cells into explants of rat inner ear.

Induction of cell proliferation and beta-catenin expression in rat utricles in vitro.

Limited regenerative response occurs in mammalian vestibular epithelia, although vestibular hair cell regeneration in mammals has been demonstrated under a variety of experimental conditions. Beta-catenin is known to play an important role in both cell-cell adhesion and signal transduction associated with cell proliferation. This study evaluated cell proliferation activity in mammalian vestibular epithelia in organotypic culture and examined the involvement of beta-catenin in cell proliferation in vestibular epithelia.

Bidirectional synaptic plasticity in the cerebellum-like mammalian dorsal cochlear nucleus.

The dorsal cochlear nucleus integrates acoustic with multimodal sensory inputs from widespread areas of the brain. Multimodal inputs are brought to spiny dendrites of fusiform and cartwheel cells in the molecular layer by parallel fibers through synapses that are subject to long-term potentiation and long-term depression. Acoustic cues are brought to smooth dendrites of fusiform cells in the deep layer by auditory nerve fibers through synapses that do not show plasticity.