Impact of partial mastoid obliteration on caloric vestibular function in canal wall down mastoidectomy.

Objective: To evaluate the influence of our technique of partial mastoid obliteration with autologous bone pâté covered by cartilage plates on vestibular stimulation.

Methods: Twenty-six patients who were treated for recurrent chronic otitis media by revision canal wall down tympanomastoidectomy and subsequent partial obliteration were invited for follow-up; 18 patients agreed to a complete follow-up including vestibular testing. Patients received questionnaires for evaluating preoperative and postoperative symptoms associated with vertigo.

Cartilage plate tympanoplasty.

Objectives: The purpose of this work was to report our modified cartilage plate tympanoplasty technique ("tulip leaves") and to analyze its clinical outcome in primary and recurrent cases of chronic otitis media with and without cholesteatoma.

Study Design: Clinical retrospective study.

Methods: Patients being operated on with this technique at the University Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Dresden, Germany, between 1993 and 2001 were invited for survey, otomicroscopy, and pure-tone audiometry in 2003.

The application of latent class analysis for diagnostic test validation of chronic Trypanosoma cruzi infection in blood donors.

The main strategy to prevent transfusion-associated Chagas disease is the identification of T. cruzi-infected blood donors by serological screening tests, however there is no perfect serological gold standard. We evaluated an enzyme immunoassay (EIA), an indirect hemaglutination (IHA), and an indirect immunofluorescence (IIF) test for detecting T.

Trypanosoma cruzi in Los Angeles and Miami blood donors: impact of evolving donor demographics on seroprevalence and implications for transfusion transmission.

Background: Trypanosoma cruzi, the agent of Chagas' disease, continues to be a concern for blood safety, as demonstrated by recent transfusion-transmitted cases in the United States and Canada. The chronic nature of Chagas', coupled with increasing numbers of immigrants from T. cruzi-endemic countries, suggests that Chagas' is a long-term public health problem.

DPOAEs and vestibular function in different types of autosomal-dominant non-syndromal hearing impairment.

Background/objective: The application of distortion-product otoacoustic emissions (DPOAE) could be advantageous in the early diagnostic of descendants of families with autosomal-dominant non-syndromal hearing impairment (ADNSHI).

Patients/methods: DP-grams of 58 affected persons of 21 families with ADNSHI were measured (f(2)/f(1)=1.22; L(1)=70 dB SPL; L(2)=65 dB SPL; four points per octave).