Speech outcomes in cochlear implant users depend on visual cross-modal cortical activity measured before or after implantation.

Cochlear implants can partially restore hearing function in deaf individuals, but long-term speech listening outcomes vary widely across cochlear implant users. Visual cross-modal plasticity, where auditory cortical neurons upregulate visual inputs to assist visual processing, is one factor proposed to worsen cochlear implant users' speech outcomes because it may limit auditory processing capability. However, evidence for this view is conflicting, and the relationship of cross-modal activity to speech perception may depend on other variables such as the type of visual activity and when it is assessed.

Cochlear implantation in adults with acquired single-sided deafness improves cortical processing and comprehension of speech presented to the non-implanted ears: a longitudinal EEG study.

Former studies have established that individuals with a cochlear implant (CI) for treating single-sided deafness experience improved speech processing after implantation. However, it is not clear how each ear contributes separately to improve speech perception over time at the behavioural and neural level. In this longitudinal EEG study with four different time points, we measured neural activity in response to various temporally and spectrally degraded spoken words presented monaurally to the CI and non-CI ears (5 left and 5 right ears) in 10 single-sided CI users and 10 age- and sex-matched individuals with normal hearing.

Association Between Periprosthetic Joint Infection and Mortality Following Primary Total Hip Arthroplasty.

Background: Periprosthetic joint infection (PJI) remains a dreaded and unpredictable complication after total hip arthroplasty (THA). In addition to causing substantial morbidity, PJI may contribute to long-term mortality risk. Our objective was to determine the long-term mortality risk associated with PJI following THA.

Diagnosis of systemic mastocytosis with cryptic deletion of TET2 and DNMT3A resulting from unbalanced translocation.

Systemic mastocytosis (SM) is a rare haematological neoplasm associated with the gain of function mutation KIT D816V in 90% of adult patients. Classically, cytogenetic aberrations are not common except in cases of SM associated with another haematological neoplasm. We highlight here an unusual clinical presentation of SM and demonstrate the utility of advanced cytogenetic analysis (optical genome mapping, OGM) in detecting a novel cytogenetic abnormality resulting in an unusual mechanism of DNMT3A and TET2 loss of function.

Examining the Spatial Varying Effects of Sociodemographic Factors on Adult Cochlear Implantation Using Geographically Weighted Poisson Regression.

Objective: To (i) demonstrate the utility of geographically weighted Poisson regression (GWPR) in describing geographical patterns of adult cochlear implant (CI) incidence in relation to sociodemographic factors in a publicly funded healthcare system, and (ii) compare Poisson regression and GWPR to fit the aforementioned relationship.

Study Design: Retrospective study of provincial CI Program database.

Setting: Academic hospital.

Neural responses to naturalistic audiovisual speech are related to listening demand in cochlear implant users.

There is a weak relationship between clinical and self-reported speech perception outcomes in cochlear implant (CI) listeners. Such poor correspondence may be due to differences in clinical and "real-world" listening environments and stimuli. Speech in the real world is often accompanied by visual cues, background environmental noise, and is generally in a conversational context, all factors that could affect listening demand.

Evidence of visual crossmodal reorganization positively relates to speech outcomes in cochlear implant users.

Deaf individuals who use a cochlear implant (CI) have remarkably different outcomes for auditory speech communication ability. One factor assumed to affect CI outcomes is visual crossmodal plasticity in auditory cortex, where deprived auditory regions begin to support non-auditory functions such as vision. Previous research has viewed crossmodal plasticity as harmful for speech outcomes for CI users if it interferes with sound processing, while others have demonstrated that plasticity related to visual language may be beneficial for speech recovery.

Patient-centered outcomes for gastrointestinal cancer care: a scoping review protocol.

Introduction: Following a cancer diagnosis, patients and their caregivers face crucial decisions regarding goals of care and treatment, which have consequences that can persist throughout their cancer journey. To foster informed and value-driven treatment choices, evidence-based information on outcomes relevant to patients is needed. Traditionally, clinical studies have largely focused on a few concrete and easily measurable outcomes such as survival, disease progression and immediate treatment toxicities.

Objective and Subjective Hearing Difficulties Are Associated With Lower Inhibitory Control.

Objective: Evidence suggests that hearing loss increases the risk of cognitive impairment. However, the relationship between hearing loss and cognition can vary considerably across studies, which may be partially explained by demographic and health factors that are not systematically accounted for in statistical models.

Design: Middle-aged to older adult participants (N = 149) completed a web-based assessment that included speech-in-noise (SiN) and self-report measures of hearing, as well as auditory and visual cognitive interference (Stroop) tasks.

Long-term mortality of academy award winning actors and actresses.

Background: Social status gradients are powerful health determinants for individuals living in poverty. We tested whether winning an Academy award (Oscar) for acting was associated with long-term survival.

Methods: We conducted a longitudinal cohort analysis of all actors and actresses nominated for an Academy award in a leading or a supporting role.

Local magnetic delivery of adeno-associated virus AAV2(quad Y-F)-mediated BDNF gene therapy restores hearing after noise injury.

Moderate noise exposure may cause acute loss of cochlear synapses without affecting the cochlear hair cells and hearing threshold; thus, it remains "hidden" to standard clinical tests. This cochlear synaptopathy is one of the main pathologies of noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL). There is no effective treatment for NIHL, mainly because of the lack of a proper drug-delivery technique.

Cortical alpha oscillations in cochlear implant users reflect subjective listening effort during speech-in-noise perception.

Listening to speech in noise is effortful for individuals with hearing loss, even if they have received a hearing prosthesis such as a hearing aid or cochlear implant (CI). At present, little is known about the neural functions that support listening effort. One form of neural activity that has been suggested to reflect listening effort is the power of 8-12 Hz (alpha) oscillations measured by electroencephalography (EEG).

Neural correlates of visual stimulus encoding and verbal working memory differ between cochlear implant users and normal-hearing controls.

A common concern for individuals with severe-to-profound hearing loss fitted with cochlear implants (CIs) is difficulty following conversations in noisy environments. Recent work has suggested that these difficulties are related to individual differences in brain function, including verbal working memory and the degree of cross-modal reorganization of auditory areas for visual processing. However, the neural basis for these relationships is not fully understood.

Quantitative ultrasound delta-radiomics during radiotherapy for monitoring treatment responses in head and neck malignancies.

Aim: We investigated quantitative ultrasound (QUS) in patients with node-positive head and neck malignancies for monitoring responses to radical radiotherapy (RT).

Materials & Methods: QUS spectral and texture parameters were acquired from metastatic lymph nodes 24 h, 1 and 4 weeks after starting RT. K-nearest neighbor and naive-Bayes machine-learning classifiers were used to build prediction models for each time point.

In What Scenarios Does a Mobile Stroke Unit Predict Better Patient Outcomes?: A Modeling Study.

Background and Purpose- The mobile stroke unit (MSU) brings imaging and thrombolysis to patients in the field. The MSU has the potential to decrease time from onset to thrombolysis; however, this depends on the location of the patient, the MSU, and the hospital. The MSU will only be able to treat a small subset of patients it is dispatched to.

Poor early cortical differentiation of speech predicts perceptual difficulties of severely hearing-impaired listeners in multi-talker environments.

Hearing impairment disrupts processes of selective attention that help listeners attend to one sound source over competing sounds in the environment. Hearing prostheses (hearing aids and cochlear implants, CIs), do not fully remedy these issues. In normal hearing, mechanisms of selective attention arise through the facilitation and suppression of neural activity that represents sound sources.

Quantitative Thermal Imaging Biomarkers to Detect Acute Skin Toxicity From Breast Radiation Therapy Using Supervised Machine Learning.

Purpose: Radiation-induced dermatitis is a common side effect of breast radiation therapy (RT). Current methods to evaluate breast skin toxicity include clinical examination, visual inspection, and patient-reported symptoms. Physiological changes associated with radiation-induced dermatitis, such as inflammation, may also increase body-surface temperature, which can be detected by thermal imaging.

Predictive quantitative ultrasound radiomic markers associated with treatment response in head and neck cancer.

Aim: We aimed to identify quantitative ultrasound (QUS)-radiomic markers to predict radiotherapy response in metastatic lymph nodes of head and neck cancer.

Materials & Methods: Node-positive head and neck cancer patients underwent pretreatment QUS imaging of their metastatic lymph nodes. Imaging features were extracted using the QUS spectral form, and second-order texture parameters.

Retirement plans and perspectives among general surgeons: a qualitative assessment.

Background: General surgeons’ retirement plans have wide-ranging personal, professional and system-level effects. We explored the drivers of and barriers to surgeon retirement to identify opportunities to support career-long retirement planning.

Methods: We conducted a qualitative study from May to October 2016 using semi-structured telephone interviews (mean duration 29 min) with general surgeons in Ontario.

Fibromyalgia and the Risk of a Subsequent Motor Vehicle Crash.

Objective: Motor vehicle crashes are a widespread contributor to mortality and morbidity, sometimes related to medically unfit motorists. We tested whether patients diagnosed with fibromyalgia (FM) have an increased risk of a subsequent serious motor vehicle crash.

Methods: We conducted a population-based self-matched longitudinal cohort analysis to estimate the incidence rate ratio of crashes among patients diagnosed with FM relative to the population norm in Ontario, Canada.

Site of hospital readmission and mortality: a population-based retrospective cohort study.

Background: Unplanned hospital readmission is a complex process, particularly if the patient is readmitted to an acute care institution other than the original hospital. This study tested the hypothesis that readmission to an alternative hospital is associated with increased mortality compared with readmission to the original hospital.

Methods: We performed a population-based retrospective cohort analysis set between 1995 and 2010 for all 21 acute care adult general hospitals in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area.