[Hearing in the elderly and hearing aids]. / L'audition des personnes âgées et l'appareillage auditif.

Statistically progressive deteriorations in the population, due more to pathological impairments than to aging properly speaking, must be distinguished from presbycusis. The onset of auditive impairment varies with genetic factors. In a statistical audiometric study, it is found that the better the hearing of a subject before the impact of presbycusis, the better the chances are of maintaining hearing; the opposite applies in the case of major auditive deterioration. Loss of hearing due to presbycusis affects all frequencies. The elderly patient has a better social value of hearing in the phonetic test than that expected from tonal audiometry, except in the case of disorders of central auditive integration.

[Analysis of word perception in deaf children. A longitudinal study]. / Analyse de la perception de la parole de l'enfant sourd. Etude longitudinale.

The assessment of speech perception and speech reading has been studied with the phonetic test of J.C. Lafon (lists of 17 french words with 3 phonemes each). 168 children from 7 to 17 have been collected. Deafness was moderate, severe or profound. It was always congenitaly sensoneural hearing loss. In order to precise data, results are giving regard to educational program: mainstream or special classes. Comparative data for each degree of deafness are given for speech perception, lipreading and both auditory and visual sensorial ways.

[Hearing aids with distorsion]. / Les prothèses auditives à distorsion.

The authors recall how reinforcements of fundamentals and first harmonics produced by differential sounds in old amplifier tube hearing aids were discovered. The authors report the evolution and principles of devices using compensation and coded signals, in order to select low frequency information of the "with distorsion hearing aids". The continuous support of Paul Hennebert in this scope is emphasized.

Early detection of hearing loss in children with cleft palates by brain-stem auditory response.

The hearing of 23 children with cleft palates was studied at an early age (before 12 months) and before pharyngoplasty using the electrophysiologic method of auditory brain-stem response. Nineteen children showed important degrees of conduction deafness of 50 or 60 dB. Results were compared with those obtained for a group of normal children tested under the same method before age 6 months. No hearing loss was observed in this group. It is concluded that hearing defects appear at an early age in children with cleft palates and are in direct relationship to the malformation. Hypotheses concerning the etiopathogeny of these hearing losses are proposed.

[Rare etiologies of congenital deafness]. / Etiologies rares de surdités congénitales.

The authors report a series of 32 children presenting with deafness associated with other congenital malformations. Some of these cases belong to known but sometimes very rare syndromes. Other pathologic associations undescribed so far, are also presented, as are known pediatric syndromes, in which deafness is unusual.

Examination and comparative study of a simple method to determine the left ventricular ejection fraction.

The authors developed a simple radioisotopic method for determining the left ventricular ejection fraction with 99mTc-labelled red blood cells. The semi-quantitative data is acquired at the equilibrium stage and gated to the ECG. The results of this atraumatic and reproducible isotopic determination of LVEF correlate statistically well those of echocardiography and left ventricular angiography.

[Secondary cancer of the bronchi. General review apropos of 3 cases]. / Les cancers secondaires des bronches. Revue générale à propos de trois cas.

The authors report 3 cases of endobronchial metastases of visceral carcinomas (kidney, breast, pancreas). With the aid of a review of the 144 cases found in the literature, they analyse the characteristics of this special type of secondary neoplasm and their diagnostic, physiopathological and therapeutic aspects.

Measurement of hearing loss in occupational noise-induced hearing loss.

Research on the hearing loss at 2 000 and 4 000 Hz which enabled us to estimate the loss at 3 000 Hz would appear to be the best measure of occupational noise-induced hearing loss: this measure is the most specific and the most discriminating of the suggested formulas. Calculation of the social handicap must take into consideration the same frequencies and the probability of error of identification at the various levels of hearing impairment. Its coefficient is that of the disability in relation to total deafness.

[The results of screening for deafness in 17,329 neonates]. / Résultats d'un dépistage de la surdité portant sur 17329 nouveau-nés.

The authors described the results of systematic screening of the sensorimotor responses of 17,329 neonates. The epidemiology of deafness at this age is shown. In routine situations, provided there is excellent anamnesis, the screening of newborn need only be done in neonates at high risk.