Hearing test pinpoints middle-ear problems in newborns
2015-07-09
(Press-News.org) (Edmonton) Screening newborn babies who are in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) using a testing process called high-frequency tympanometry can help identify middle-ear problems earlier, according to newly published research from a local team of researchers.
"If people cannot hear, we need to know if the problem is with the middle ear, inner ear or hearing nerve. Obviously, a baby cannot tell you, so in the clinic it's hard to know when they have hearing loss," explained Ming Zhang, an associate professor at the U of A's Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders and co-author of the new study with colleagues Li Qi of Vancouver General Hospital, Brian Schmidt of Glenrose Rehabilitation Hospital, and Mosarrat Qureshi and Leonora Hendson, who both hold appointments at the Royal Alexandra Hospital and the U of A's Department of Pediatrics.
"Once you know the problem is with the middle ear, we can reduce stress on parents worrying about hearing loss and putting their child through a battery of followup tests, which can take months to complete. This also allows us to concentrate treatment on middle-ear disease that much sooner."
In their study, audiologists used high-frequency tympanometry to test middle-ear function in 31 infants between the ages of one week and six months at the Royal Alexandra and Glenrose hospitals. All babies involved in the study were screened using a standard test, called auditory brainstem response, and high-frequency tympanometry.
Middle-ear impairments can be treated by various means, such as inserting a tube through the eardrum to relieve pressure issues or removing blockages of air flow into the middle ear behind the nose. Inner-ear problems, which can be the result of damage to hair cells that impairs the ability to convert sound vibrations into nerve activity, are much more complex, Zhang says, and require more extensive treatments such as cochlear implants or using hearing aids.
In cases of middle-ear disease, this tube is often blocked, and this kind of treatment of middle-ear disease can return hearing to its optimal levels.
The research team showed that high-frequency tympanometry is a good test for identifying middle-ear disorders in very young infants who are in or have recently been in the NICU. Use of this test could lead to earlier treatments and better hearing for these babies.
"Newborn screening is a priority of Canadian and American audiology and pediatric medical communities, and our study shows there is a benefit to screening the middle ear of newborns," Zhang said.
The team's findings were published June 23 in the Canadian Journal of Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology. The study was awarded the Excellence in Applied Research Award by Speech-Language & Audiology Canada, which partially funded the research.
INFORMATION:
[Attachments] See images for this press release:
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
2015-07-09
The relationship between mental and physical health is well established. But when mental and physical illnesses co-occur, patients' accounts of physical illness are sometimes arbitrarily discredited or dismissed by physicians.
Research by Jeremy D. Coplan, MD, professor of psychiatry at SUNY Downstate Medical Center, and colleagues has documented a high rate of association between panic disorder and four domains of physical illness. The research could alter how physicians and psychiatrists view the boundaries within and between psychiatric and medical disorders.
"Patients ...
2015-07-09
Green buildings are indeed healthy buildings. So says Dr. Joseph Allen and fellow researchers of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in the US. They conducted the first comprehensive review of studies that focused on green buildings and summarized the health benefits for the people who work and live in them. The review is published in Springer's journal Current Environmental Health Reports.
The green building movement has taken off in the past 10 years. According to Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED®), which certifies green building standards, ...
2015-07-09
In about one-sixth of the cases of male infertility, men do not make any measurable levels of sperm, a condition called azoospermia. New research led by University of Pennsylvania scientists suggests that mutations in an X chromosome gene called TEX11 are responsible for about 1 percent of azoospermia cases.
The investigators also found that in mice bred to lack the gene, reintroducing the gene restores their fertility. Additional studies in mice revealed that a certain amount of the TEX11 protein expressed from the gene is needed for sperm to form. The protein plays ...
2015-07-09
An expert panel convened by the International Society for Sexual Medicine has developed a detailed "Process of Care" for the diagnosis and management of testosterone deficiency in men.
After an extensive literature review and in-depth consultations, the panel of 18 experts from a wide range of medical disciplines recommended that testosterone deficiency be defined as a clinical and biochemical syndrome characterized by both a deficiency of testosterone or testosterone action, and relevant symptoms. The panel stressed that the condition may affect multiple organ systems ...
2015-07-09
For the first time, a new analysis shows an impact of climate change on human society long before we knew the climate was actually changing.
Exploring Google's scanned book collection, the analysis finds that society in general increasingly discussed some of the predicted effects of climate change--such as heat waves, drought, and flooding--long before current global weather alterations were widely known about.
The authors note that while the science of climate change and climate action has come under sustained political attack, buttressing the physical record with ...
2015-07-09
A related package of articles published online by JAMA Oncology focuses on end-of-life care for teens and young adults and advance care planning for patients with cancer. The package of articles includes two original investigations, an invited commentary, an editorial, an accompanying editor's note and an author audio interview.
End-of-Life Care for Teens, Young Adults with Cancer
In the first study, corresponding author Jennifer W. Mack, M.D., M.P.H., of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, and her coauthors looked at the intensity of end-of-life care for teens ...
2015-07-09
In a review of nearly 2,000 surveys with people whose loved ones died of cancer, researchers led by Johns Hopkins experts say they found a 40 percent increase over a 12-year period in the number of patients with cancer who participated in one form of advance care planning -- designating durable power of attorney privileges to a loved one -- but no corresponding impact on their rates of aggressive medical care received in the last weeks of life.
In addition, the investigators say that despite the substantial increase in patients who designated a durable power of attorney, ...
2015-07-09
Adenoviruses cause numerous diseases, such as eye or respiratory infections, and they are widely used in gene therapy. Researchers from the University of Zurich have now discovered how these viruses penetrate the cells, a key step for infection and gene delivery The cell unwillingly supports virus entry and infection by providing lipids that are normally used to repair damaged membranes.
An intact cell membrane is essential for any cell to function. The external cell membrane can be damaged by mechanical stress, for example in muscle cells, or by pathogens, such as ...
2015-07-09
(Philadelphia, PA) - The buildup of fat in the blood makes a bad situation worse - it not only raises a person's risk for heart attack or stroke but also impairs the growth of new blood vessels. How excess fat in the blood - a condition known as hyperlipidemia - blocks vessel growth was unclear, but new work by researchers at Temple University School of Medicine (TUSM) shows that a molecule known as caspase-1 plays a central role and that preventing its activity could be the key to building new blood vessels and restoring blood supply to oxygen-starved tissues.
"Caspase-1 ...
2015-07-09
NOAA and its research partners, using an ensemble modeling approach, predict that the 2015 western Lake Erie harmful algal bloom season will be among the most severe in recent years and could become the second most severe behind the record-setting 2011 bloom.
The effects of the cyanobacterial blooms include a higher cost for cities and local governments to treat their drinking water, as well as risk to swimmers in high concentration areas, and a nuisance to boaters when blooms form. These effects will vary in locations and severity with winds, and will peak in September.
The ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
[Press-News.org] Hearing test pinpoints middle-ear problems in newborns
