Visually Induced Dizziness in Children and Validation of the Pediatric Visually Induced Dizziness Questionnaire.

Aims: To develop and validate the Pediatric Visually Induced Dizziness Questionnaire (PVID) and quantify the presence and severity of visually induced dizziness (ViD), i.e., symptoms induced by visual motion stimuli including crowds and scrolling computer screens in children.

The Pediatric Vestibular Symptom Questionnaire: A Validation Study.

Objective: To develop and validate the Pediatric Vestibular Symptom Questionnaire (PVSQ) and quantify subjective vestibular symptom (ie, dizziness, unsteadiness) severity in children.

Study Design: One hundred sixty-eight healthy children (female, n = 91) and 56 children with postconcussion dizziness or a vestibular disorder (female, n = 32), between ages 6 and 17 years, were included. The PVSQ contains questions regarding vestibular symptom frequency during the previous month.

Vestibular function in children with auditory neuropathy spectrum disorder.

Objective: Children with auditory neuropathy spectrum disorder (ANSD) account for about 10% of paediatric patients referred for cochlear implantation. Vestibulopathy may be associated with ANSD, and may have implications when formulating management plans in this patient group. We wanted to determine the incidence and predictive factors for vestibulopathy in this patient group to guide vestibular testing in this patient population, and give insight to the aetiology of ANSD.

Congenital cytomegalovirus: association between dried blood spot viral load and hearing loss.

Aim: To investigate the relation between cytomegalovirus (CMV) viral load on dried blood spots (DBS) from newborn biochemical screening ("Guthrie") cards, and sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) in congenital CMV.

Design: Cross-sectional study with retrospective case-note review.

Setting: Seven paediatric audiology departments in the United Kingdom.

Advancement in post-meningitic lateral semicircular canal labyrinthitis ossificans.

Objective: To assess whether lateral semicircular canal (LSCC) ossification is more advanced than that in the cochlear basal turn, in order to judge the value of the former as a predictor.

Methods: Retrospective review of 33 paediatric patients from our cochlear implant programme, with profound sensorineural hearing loss after bacterial meningitis. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), computed tomography (CT) scans and operative findings were reviewed.

Central auditory processing disorder as the presenting manifestation of subtle brain pathology.

The objective of this case-report study was to assess the presence of central auditory impairment in a patient with a normal neurological examination. This subject was a 45-year-old female with gradually deteriorating hearing difficulties over a period of 5 years and a borderline normal audiogram. Behavioural central auditory tests were used, including Dichotic Sentence Identification Test, Competing Sentences Test, and auditory event-related potentials (mismatch negativity).

The effect of language on maternal knowledge of the child's hearing status.

The aim of this study was to assess whether mothers whose first language is not English are as accurate as English speakers in reporting on their child's hearing. Some Health Trusts are using parental report following an educative process as part of their screening programme for hearing impairment. At present, in Wandsworth, London, UK, where there is a relatively high ethnic minority population, many of whom speak little or no English, the parental educative programme is carried out in English.

Tinnitus and impulse noise-induced hearing loss in drop-forge operators.

Tinnitus is frequently accompanied by noise-induced hearing losses, and perhaps as it is assumed--particularly with those arising from exposure to impulsive types of noise. In order to explain it and to estimate a prevalence of tinnitus in the industrial, impulse noise workers the group of 261 drop-forge operators exposed to impulses with peak levels of 135 dB versus 169 age-matched controls was subjected to otological and audiometric examination, and then the complaints for tinnitus in both groups have been analysed. The prevalence of tinnitus, highest in operators with longer exposure duration (> 10 years) was found in 184 individuals (70.

A comparison of noise induced disability assessments in the UK and Poland.

The difference between the legal assessment of the disability associated with noise induced hearing loss and that experienced by the worker has not as yet been successfully resolved. Legal assessment is driven by financial consideration rather than the rehabilitation needs of the subject. The aim of this paper is to present this problem and consider the formulae currently used in the UK and Poland in the assessment of noise induced hearing disability.

Parental awareness and the detection of hearing loss.

The aim of this study was to assess the effect of a specific educative process on the accuracy of parental observation regarding the child's hearing status. The presence or absence of parental concern in two groups of subjects, one of which had undergone the educative process, was elicited by direct questioning and its accuracy checked by formal hearing assessment. The results indicate that there is no significant difference in the reliability of parental observation between the two groups.

Tinnitus after head injury: evidence from otoacoustic emissions.

Objective: Tinnitus may be caused by a lesion or dysfunction at any level of the auditory system. This study explores cochlear mechanics using otoacoustic emissions in patients with tinnitus after head injury, in whom there seems to be evidence to support dysfunction within the CNS.

Methods: The study included 20 patients with tinnitus and other auditory symptoms, such as hyperacusis and difficulty in listening in background noise, after head injury, in the presence of an "intact" auditory periphery (normal or near normal audiometric thresholds).

Toxicity threshold of quinine hydrochloride following low-level repeated dosing in healthy volunteers.

Following a double-blind, four-way crossover design, 32 healthy volunteers (20 males and 12 females) each consumed lactose placebo, or 80, 120 or 160 mg quinine HCl daily for 21 days. Before dosing and at regular intervals during dosing, blood and urine samples were collected and analysed for quinine HCl. Electrocardiography, heart rate, blood pressure, audiometry, peripheral field, funduscopy, colour vision, visual acuity, electronystagmography (ENG) and test for optokinetic nystagmus were all evaluated before dosing and at selected times during dosing.

Auditory function in hereditary motor and sensory neuropathy (Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease).

Fourteen patients with hereditary motor and sensory neuropathy (HMSN), 12 of Type I and 2 of Type II, were assessed for auditory dysfunction. Five patients complained of hearing loss and all had pure-tone audiograms outside the normal range, while one patient who did not complain of hearing impairment also had an abnormal pure-tone audiogram. Assessment of loudness function, speech audiometry and brainstem auditory evoked potentials (BAEP) suggested that the hearing loss was the result of VIII nerve dysfunction, a conclusion supported by the abnormality of the electrocochleogram (ECochG) in one patient.