Auditory changes in acromegaly.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is to determine the changes involving auditory system in cases with acromegaly. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Otological examinations of 41 cases with acromegaly (uncontrolled n = 22, controlled n = 19) were compared with those of age and gender-matched 24 healthy subjects. Whereas the cases with acromegaly underwent examination with pure tone audiometry (PTA), speech audiometry for speech discrimination (SD), tympanometry, stapedius reflex evaluation and otoacoustic emission tests, the control group did only have otological examination and PTA. Additionally, previously performed paranasal sinus-computed tomography of all cases with acromegaly and control subjects were obtained to measure the length of internal acoustic canal (IAC). RESULTS: PTA values were higher (p < 0.001 for right ears and p = 0.001 for left ears), and SD scores were (p = 0.002 for right ears and p = 0.002 for left ears) lower in acromegalic patients. IAC width in acromegaly group was narrower compared to that in control group (p = 0.03 for right ears and p = 0.02 for left ears). When only cases with acromegaly were taken into consideration, PTA values in left ears had positive correlation with growth hormone and insulin-like growth factor-1 levels (r = 0.4, p = 0.02 and r = 0.3, p = 0.03). Of all cases with acromegaly 13 (32%) had hearing loss in at least one ear, 7 (54%) had sensorineural type and 6 (46%) had conductive type hearing loss. CONCLUSION: Acromegaly may cause certain changes in the auditory system in cases with acromegaly. The changes in the auditory system may be multifactorial causing both conductive and sensorioneural defects.

The graft selection for haemodialysis.

BACKGROUND: In patients with chronic renal failure, a major concern is to provide safe and reliable long-term vascular access for haemodialysis. The radiocephalic arteriovenous (AV) fistula remains the first choice vascular access procedure, however the grafts are used in order to obtain vascular access in patients with failed native distal and proximal AV fistulas. The aim of this study was to compare the patency rate of different grafts such as standard wall polytetrafluoroethylene (sPTFE), bovine vein graft, Diastat graft, in these patients. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Four hundred and forty-six AV fistulas were surgically created in 361 patients. Eighty-four out of 361 patients undergoing different graft replacements were retrospectively reviewed. We evaluated the primary patency rates, days between the fistula placement and the last dialysis treatment before thrombosis had occurred, and the secondary patency rate, days between the fistula placement and the last dialysis treatment before the graft was considered completely lost. The graft survival was calculated according to the Kaplan-Meier method. RESULTS: There were 58 (69%) women and 26 (31%) men with a mean age of 54.5 years. The sPTFE (Gore-Tex) graft was used in 41 (41.8%), bovine vein graft (ProCol) in 38 (38.7%) and Diastat vascular grafts in 19 (19.5%) patients. Primary and secondary patency rates for sPTFE graft were 37% and 60%, 68% and 85% for bovine graft and 26% and 42% for Diastat vascular grafts, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrates that the bovine vein graft provides the longest patency rate compared to the other grafts even in patients with multiple failed accesses.

Socioeconomic factors and incidence of erectile dysfunction: findings of the longitudinal Massachussetts Male Aging Study.

Despite the well-documented relationship of socioeconomic factors (SEF) to various health problems, the relationship of SEF to erectile dysfunction (ED) is not well understood. As such, the goals of this paper are: (1) to determine whether incident ED is more likely to occur among men with low SEF; and (2) to determine whether incident ED varies by SEF after taking into consideration other well-established ED risk factors that are also associated with SEF such as smoking, diabetes, and high blood pressure. We used data from 797 participants in the longitudinal population-based Massachusetts Male Aging Study (baseline 1987-1989, follow-up 1995-1997) who were free of ED at baseline and had complete data on ED and all risk factors. ED was determined by a self-administered questionnaire and its relationship to SEF was assessed using logistic regression. We first analyzed the age-adjusted relationship of education, income, and occupation to incidence of ED. The results show that men with low education (O.R. = 1.46, 95% C.I. = 1.02-2.08) or men in blue-collar occupations (O.R. = 1.68, 95% C.I. = 1.16-2.43) are significantly more likely to develop ED. For the multivariate model, due to multicollinearity among education, income, and occupation, we ran three separate models. After taking into consideration all the other risk factors--age, lifestyle and medical conditions--the effect of occupation remained significant. Men who worked in blue-collar occupations were one and a half times more likely to develop ED compared to men in white-collar occupations (O.R. = 1.55, 95% C.I. = 1.06-2.28).