Does galvanic vestibular stimulation decrease spasticity in clinically complete spinal cord injury?

The aim of this study was to determine changes in clinical and biomechanical measures of spasticity after administering galvanic vestibular stimulation in patients with a complete spinal cord injury (SCI). The spasticity in the lower limbs was assessed using the Modified Ashworth Scale and the pendulum test in seven SCI patients (grade A on the ASIA Impairment Scale) before (0), immediately after (0), and at 5 and 30 min after the real versus sham galvanic vestibular stimulation (15 s each, anode over the right mastoid). Overall, the changes in spasticity were not significantly different between the real and sham galvanic vestibular stimulation.

Correlation between Balance Ability and Speech-Language Development in Children.

The longitudinal study was conducted in order to establish whether the success rate of reflexes related to maintaining balance at birth is in correlation with the success rate of maintaining balance in early childhood, as well as to examine the correlation of a certain level of speech and language development with the ability of maintaining balance at birth and at the age of 5. The main study group included 54 children of both genders, aged 5.0 to 5.

Clinical and audiological findings in children with acute otitis media.

Conclusion: It is recommended to perform follow-up tympanometry and if necessary tonal audiometry in children who have normal plain otoscopy findings after recovering from acute otitis media (AOM). Children with Type B tympanogram, 3 months following the onset of AOM, are very likely to have a conductive hearing loss. Type B tympanogram is a much better indicator of effusion in the middle ear compared to plain otoscopy.

Benign paroxysmal vertigo in childhood.

The aim of the paper is to describe the clinical picture of benign paroxysmal vertigo (BPV) in childhood. BPV in childhood often goes unrecognized in spite of the fact that vertigo and balance disorders are not uncommon in children. Four cases are described with clinical examination findings between the attacks.

Changes in Doppler blood flow velocity in middle cerebral artery in response to airborne sound in low- and high-risk human fetuses.

Objective: To examine fetal auditory perception in low- and high-risk pregnancies in period from 27 to 31 weeks gestational age with the aim to establish diagnostic parameters in prenatal detection of the degree of hearing development in a fetus.

Methods: Method of prenatal hearing screening was applied on 80 women divided in two groups: Control group (C=22), consisted of pregnant women with low-risk pregnancies, and Experimental group (E=58), consisted of pregnant women with high-risk pregnancies (pregnancies with diagnosis of: preterm delivery, hypertension and/or intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR), diabetes). PHS was applied in period from 27 to 31 weeks gestational age.

[Subjective Visual Vertical test: normative values in healthy population].

Introduction: Subjective Visual Vertical test (SW test) can be applied to measure one of the functions of the vestibular apparatus, its afferent pathways and nuclei within the brain stem. The test is based on the subjective assessment of verticality. The possibility of perceived visual vertical in healthy subjects can show deviation with accuracy of -/+ 2 degrees at most.