Follow-Up of Neonatal Hearing Screening in the Risk Factor Group for Hearing Loss: Results from a Tertiary Medical Center.

Introduction: Universal newborn hearing screening has been successfully implemented in many places around the world, and it is recommended that cases with risk factors for hearing loss be followed-up regardless of hearing screening results. However, there is a need for clarity regarding the recommended rate of follow-up and which tests should be performed. The aim of this study was to assess the audiologic follow-up program for the group with risk factors.

Issues Concerning the Mechanisms of Bone Conduction.

Air and bone conduction thresholds are used to differentiate between conductive and sensori-neural hearing losses because bone conduction is thought to bypass the conductive apparatus, directly activating the inner ear. However, the suggested bone conduction mechanisms involve the outer and middle ears. Also, normal bone conduction thresholds have been reported in cases of lesions to the conduction pathway.

Implementation of pooled saliva tests for universal screening of cCMV infection.

Congenital cytomegalovirus (cCMV) is the most common intrauterine infection, leading to neurodevelopmental disabilities. Universal newborn infant screening of cCMV has been increasingly advocated. In the absence of a high-throughput screening test, which can identify all infected newborn infants, the development of an accurate and efficient testing strategy has remained an ongoing challenge.

Soft Tissue Conduction Activates the Auditory Pathway in the Brain.

Soft tissue conduction is a mode of hearing which differs from air and bone conduction since the soft tissues of the body convey the audio-frequency vibrations to the ear. It is elicited by inducing soft tissue vibrations with an external vibrator applied to sites on the body or by intrinsic vibrations resulting from vocalization or the heartbeat. However, the same external vibrator applied to the skin sites also excites cutaneous mechanoreceptors, and attempts have been made to assist patients with hearing loss by audio-tactile substitution.

Amniotic fluid biomarkers predict the severity of congenital cytomegalovirus infection.

BACKGROUNDCytomegalovirus (CMV) is the most common intrauterine infection, leading to infant brain damage. Prognostic assessment of CMV-infected fetuses has remained an ongoing challenge in prenatal care, in the absence of established prenatal biomarkers of congenital CMV (cCMV) infection severity. We aimed to identify prognostic biomarkers of cCMV-related fetal brain injury.

How Is the Cochlea Activated in Response to Soft Tissue Auditory Stimulation in the Occluded Ear?

Soft tissue conduction is an additional mode of auditory stimulation which can be initiated either by applying an external vibrator to skin sites not overlying skull bone such as the neck (so it is not bone conduction) or by intrinsic body vibrations resulting, for example, from the heartbeat and vocalization. The soft tissue vibrations thereby induced are conducted by the soft tissues to all parts of the body, including the walls of the external auditory canal. In order for soft tissue conduction to elicit hearing, the soft tissue vibrations which are induced must penetrate into the cochlea in order to excite the inner ear hair cells and auditory nerve fibers.

Occlusion Effect in Response to Stimulation by Soft Tissue Conduction-Implications.

To gain insight into the broader implications of the occlusion effect (OE-difference between unoccluded and occluded external canal thresholds), the OE in response to pure tones at 0.5, 1.0, 2.

Audiogram in Response to Stimulation Delivered to Fluid Applied to the External Meatus.

Background And Objectives: Hearing can be elicited in response to vibratory stimuli delivered to fluid in the external auditory meatus. To obtain a complete audiogram in subjects with normal hearing in response to pure tone vibratory stimuli delivered to fluid applied to the external meatus. Subjects and.

Implications for Bone Conduction Mechanisms from Thresholds of Post Radical Mastoidectomy and Subtotal Petrosectomy Patients.

Objectives: To assess bone conduction (BC) thresholds following radical mastoidectomy and subtotal petrosectomy, in which the tympanic membrane and the ossicular chain, responsible for osseous BC mechanisms, are surgically removed. The removal of the tympanic membrane and the ossicular chain would reduce the contributions to BC threshold of the following four osseous BC mechanisms: the occlusion effect of the external ear, middle ear ossicular chain inertia, inner ear fluid inertia, and distortion (compression-expansion) of the walls of the inner ear.

Materials And Methods: BC thresholds were determined in 64 patients who underwent radical mastoidectomy and in 248 patients who underwent subtotal petrosectomy.

The child doesn't hear? On breaking bad news as perceived by parents and audiologists.

Objective: The object of this study was to explore how parents experienced receiving the news of their child's hearing loss, and how audiologists experienced the situation of conveying the diagnosis, in order to examine improvements to the current process.

Method: A questionnaire regarding different aspects of breaking the news was developed. 48 Arabic and Hebrew speaking parents of hearing impaired children answered the questionnaire.

Inner Ear Excitation in Normal and Postmastoidectomy Participants by Fluid Stimulation in the Absence of Air- and Bone-Conduction Mechanisms.

Background: Hearing can be induced not only by airborne sounds (air conduction [AC]) and by the induction of skull vibrations by a bone vibrator (osseous bone conduction [BC]), but also by inducing vibrations of the soft tissues of the head, neck, and thorax. This hearing mode is called soft tissue conduction (STC) or nonosseous BC.

Purpose: This study was designed to gain insight into the mechanism of STC auditory stimulation.

Bone Conduction Thresholds without Bone Vibrator Application Force.

Background: Osseous bone conduction (BC) stimulation involves applying the clinical bone vibrator with an application force of about 5 Newton (N) to the skin over the cranial vault of skull bone (e.g., mastoid, forehead).

Auditory Behavior in Everyday Life (ABEL) questionnaire in Hebrew and in Arabic and its association with clinical tests in cochlear-implanted children.

Background: The aim of this study was to describe the results of the Auditory Behavior in Everyday Life (ABEL) questionnaire adapted to Hebrew and to Arabic and its association to clinical test results in children with cochlear implants. As assessment of hearing by audiometry does not always adequately reflect performance in daily life, questionnaires have been developed to assess functioning in natural surroundings and to track progress. In order to evaluate cochlear-implanted children's verbal and communicative abilities, the parental ABEL questionnaire was developed in 2002.

Results of second cochlear implant with long inter-implant delay.

Background: Implantation at a young age enables exposure to language and speech during the critical age for language acquisition. Long duration of auditory deprivation may lead to less optimal results.

Methods: A retrospective review of cases was performed.

Auditory sensation via moist contact of the bone vibrator with skin at soft tissue sites.

Background: Auditory sensation can be elicited not only by air conduction (AC) with an earphone and by bone conduction by applying a bone vibrator to bony sites on the head, but also by a newly described mode based on applying the bone vibrator to soft tissue sites on the head, neck, and thorax (soft tissue conduction - STC). This study was designed to assess whether it is necessary to compress the skin at the STC sites, which could induce vibrations of the underlying bone.

Methods: In 15 normal-hearing subjects, thresholds were assessed with the bone vibrator in air (control for possible AC), direct contact of the bone vibrator with the mastoid and regions around the lip, and indirect contact (via a cotton wool wick, dry or wet) of the bone vibrator with sites around the lip.

No changes in cochlear implant mapping and audiometric parameters in adolescence.

Background: Audiologists mapping in the clinic report that many cochlear-implanted teenagers and their parents complain of deterioration in hearing capabilities. The aim of this study was to compare the mapping parameters measured over the years and determine whether more changes occurred throughout adolescence than during childhood.

Methods: The files of 23 cochlear-implanted teenagers were studied retrospectively.

Comparison of two hearing screening programs in the same population: oto-acoustic emissions (OAE) screening in newborns and behavioral screening when infants.

Objective: Hearing screening programs in infancy should identify hearing impairment as early as possible. The two common programs utilize either objective neonatal tests (oto-acoustic emissions (OAE) or automatic auditory brainstem responses (aABR)) or behavioral screening at 7-9 months of age. Most countries employ only one of these options.

The effect of aging on event-related potentials and behavioral responses: comparison of tonal, phonologic and semantic targets.

Objective: To investigate age-related changes in speech perception by measuring event-related potentials (ERPs) elicited by auditory stimuli varying in their linguistic characteristics from pure tones to words.

Methods: ERPs were recorded from 64 subjects in three age groups (young, middle age and elderly) to auditory target stimuli, using an oddball paradigm. Three different tasks and stimuli were used: tonal, phonological and semantic.

Event related potentials (ERPs) and behavioral responses: comparison of tonal stimuli to speech stimuli in phonological and semantic tasks.

Event related potentials (ERPs) were recorded from 20 young subjects to auditory target stimuli while they were performing three different tasks, using an oddball paradigm: 1. Tones: Subjects were instructed to respond to a 1 kHz tone, and ignore a 2 kHz tone; 2. Phonological: Subjects were instructed to respond only to pseudowords that had a specific ending ('f"); 3.

Changes in the auditory nerve brainstem evoked responses in a case of maple syrup urine disease.

Maple syrup urine disease (MSUD) is a rare metabolic disease due to deficiency in the enzyme that breaks down branched chain amino acids. Lack of the enzyme causes accumulation of these amino acids and, if untreated, causes severe neurological damage. A case study of a 10-day old female infant, born after 40 weeks' gestation with a birthweight of 2740 g with MSUD hospitalized in the acute stage with respiratory failure and severe brain oedema is described.

[The hearing screening program for newborns with otoacoustic emission for early detection of hearing loss].

The importance of early detection of hearing loss is well known and screening programs for newborns are becoming more common throughout the world. The Hadassah hearing screening program for newborns using the Transient Evoked Otoacoustic Emission (TEOAE) test began in October 1999. All newborns are tested before discharge from the hospital.