Research in the auditory and vestibular systems. The recommendations of the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders National Strategic Research Plan.

Promising fundamental research opportunities identified by the National Strategic Research Plan of the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders include encoding of sound and gravitational/acceleration force by the inner ear, processing complex signals in the central nervous system, the molecular and cellular mechanisms responsible for hair cell motility, mechanoelectric transduction, homeostasis and metabolism of the inner ear, synaptic transmission, hair cell regeneration, plasticity and otoacoustic emissions. Clinical research opportunities include the molecular genetics of hereditary hearing impairment, the etiology of sensorineural hearing loss, environmental ototoxicity, the elucidation of tinnitus, the development of vaccines against otitis media, pharmacotherapy, rehabilitation for hearing loss and deafness with hearing aids and cochlear implants and physical therapy rehabilitation for vestibular disorders.

Successful treatment of selected cases of abductor spasmodic dysphonia using botulinum toxin injection.

Ten patients with abductor spasmodic dysphonia, who exhibited spasmodic bursts and heightened activity of the cricothyroid muscle during speech, were selected for participation. Between 5 and 20 U of botulinum toxin type A were injected into both right and left cricothyroid muscles. Six patients benefited substantially, whereas four did not.

Spasmodic dysphonia: botulinum toxin injection after recurrent nerve surgery.

The purpose of this study was to determine if botulinum toxin injections into the thyroarytenoid muscle would reduce symptoms in adductor spasmodic dysphonic patients who had experienced symptom recurrence after recurrent laryngeal nerve surgery. Five patients were seen between 3 to 10 years after surgery with a return of speech symptoms and persistent unilateral vocal fold paralysis. Before injection, comparisons with controls on spectrographic measures of pitch and voice breaks, aperiodicity, and sentence length demonstrated significant symptoms of spasmodic dysphonia (p less than or equal to 0.