Progress in the early identification of hearing impaired infants in Mississippi.

The prevalence of permanent congenital hearing loss is three to four infants per thousand live births. Because early intervention is effective in preventing speech and language delay, the NIH has recommended universal newborn hearing screening. Prior to this recommendation, several states, including Mississippi which had one of the first hospital based screening programs, had statewide programs. In 1981 the Lions Clubs of Mississippi and the University of Mississippi Medical Center began an infant hearing screening program, which was described in Volume XXX of The Journal of the Mississippi State Medical Association. This program was recognized in 1986 with an award from the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, and by 1989, the Lions Club had persuaded twenty-two hospitals that this was a needed service. Twelve years after the start of the program in Mississippi, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) recommended universal newborn hearing screening. This article reviews Mississippi's efforts toward early identification of hearing loss and provides an update on the current screening program.

Wideband acoustic immittance measurements of the middle ear: introduction and some historical antecedents.

This supplement focuses on some of the most recent acoustic measurements within the occluded, human external auditory meatus (EAM). The goal of this introduction is to provide an overview of basic and clinical EAM measurements that evolved in the 20th century and some relations between these measurements and wideband acoustic absorbance. The authors review some of the major efforts that have been used to evaluate the condition of the human, adult middle ear transmission system, the middle ear cavity, and the function of the Eustachian tube. They have grouped most of this work under the rubric of "acoustic immittance." A historical perspective helps one appreciate that the measurement of wideband acoustic absorbance is not a totally new procedure. Rather, it is the latest enhancement to aural acoustic-immittance measurements. An enhancement that can expand one's ability to characterize middle ear function and effects of ear disease on that function. It also allows clinicians evaluate middle ear function for frequencies whose wavelength is shorter than the length of the EAM.

[Hearing training, hearing therapy and auditory rehabilitation in hearing impaired individuals during the last few centuries]. / Hörtraining, Hörtherapie und nichtapparative Hörrehabilitation bei Schwerhörigen im Wandel der Zeiten.

BACKGROUND: The remarkable quality of modern hearing aids enables most hearing impaired individuals to take part in verbal communication without great effort. As a result, auditory training seems to have fallen into oblivion, even though its use is certainly still justified today. This article aims to review the development of these diverse therapy methods. METHODS: For this systematic review, a selective literature research in PubMed using the keywords "auditory training" = 211 hits and "auditory rehabilitation" = 166 hits has been carried out. In addition, handbooks and monographs were taken into consideration. RESULTS: For around 2,000 years, people have tried to restore hearing by acoustic stimulation. Initially it was believed that hearing could be "woken up" by means of acoustic stimulation. From the 19th Century onwards, auditory training was meant to support residual hearing and help understanding in verbal communication. Towards the end of the 20th Century, systematic approaches that were intended to enhance cognitive skills, such as concentration and attentiveness by acoustic stimulation, were developed. DISCUSSION: The wish to integrate deaf individuals into the auditory verbal oriented society, the tremendous number of soldiers suffering from noise-induced hearing loss after World War II, modern hearing aids and cochlear implants, and finally availability of personal computers has fostered the development of auditory training methods. Further research has to investigate whether auditory training combined with drug therapy or other stimulation methods are beneficial.

The discovery of salicylate ototoxicity.

Although the name of the discoverer of salicylate ototoxicity is still debated, most authors have quoted Muller and his 1877 report. To the best of our knowledge, the true discoverer of the transient ototoxicity of salicylate was the Italian chemist Cesare Bertagnini who reported this evidence in 1855 in the journal Il Nuovo Cimento.

A historical perspective on digital hearing AIDS: how digital technology has changed modern hearing AIDS.

This article provides the author's perspective on the development of digital hearing aids and how digital signal processing approaches have led to changes in hearing aid design. Major landmarks in the evolution of digital technology are identified, and their impact on the development of digital hearing aids is discussed. Differences between analog and digital approaches to signal processing in hearing aids are identified.

[200 years testing hearing disorders with speech, 50 years german speech audiometry -- a review]. / 200 Jahre Hörprüfungen mit Sprache, 50 Jahre deutsche Sprachaudiometrie -- ein Rückblick.

FROM THE BEGINNIGS TO CLASSICAL SPEECH TESTS: The need for classification of different degrees of hearing disorders first arose when it seemed possible to treat deafness. Grapengiesser in Berlin 1801 had applied galvanic current to the ears of deaf children and reported some success. Pfingsten in Kiel in 1804 using this method was the first to use speech in diagnosing different degrees of deafness. He divided speech sounds into three classes: vowels, voiced consonants and voiceless consonants. Itard in Paris in 1821 gave a classification of five classes according to which sounds could be perceived, starting from normal speech to thunder and the bang of a gun. Schmalz in Dresden 1846 noted the range within which speech was understood thus introducing the concept of hearing distance. Helmholtz in 1863 had demonstrated that vowels are composed of pure tones. Wolf in Frankfurt 1871 tried to align all speech sounds from the lowest frequency (tongue-R = 16 Hz) to the highest (sh = 4096 Hz) and measured the hearing distance for each sound. Following these suggestions word lists based on the predominant frequencies were compiled in a number of languages including Japanese. SPEECH AUDIOMETRY: This chapter is devoted to Karl Heinz HahIbrock, Freiburg, who was the founder of the German speech audiometry. Hahlbrock followed the American authors of the Psycho-acoustic Laboratory at Harvard, in particular J. P. Egan (1948), using statistical methods for composing lists of words based on the relative frequency of speech sounds and phonetically balanced between the different groups. He finally presented a test comprising groups of two-digit numbers and monosyllabic words. Hahlbrock died in 2003 exactly fifty years after the presentation of his test. A short account of his life is given. THE FOLLOWING DEVELOPMENT: In the following years various other types of speech tests were elaborated using sentences, distorted speech, diotic and dichotic presentation partly aimed at fitting hearing aids, partly with the aim to diagnose central hearing disorders. Hahlbrock's test, however, remained the standard for evaluating speech reception and discrimination. DISCUSSION: One of the fundamental problems in testing speech discrimination is that there is no catalogue of phonemes common to all languages or regional accents. Untrained not native speakers often do no perceive certain sounds having a partial auditory agnosia. They cannot distinguish between e. g. 'hand' and 'and' or 'end' and 'ant', but the examiner must decide if the word presented was repeated correctly or not.

[30 years of stapes surgery]. / 30 lat chirurgii strzemiaczka.

This study reports the results of otosclerosis surgery performed during the past thirty years (1973-2002) in the ENT Clinic in Katowice. The authors present difficult anatomic relationships in the tympanic cavity which might have an influence on stapes surgery. Audiometric evaluation of 100 bilateral stapedotomies performed in 50 patients revealed that a small--hole stapedotomy is a safe technique and could be performed bilaterally. The group of 55 stapedotomies with stapedial tendon preserved was compared to the group of 55 stapedotomies with dissected tendon. SRT was better in the group where the tendon was preserved. In the group of 32 patients ABR before and after stapedotomy was recorded. The latency of V wave after the operation was reduced to the normal values what indicated a correct function of the ossicular chain postoperatively. In the group of 60 patients DPOAE prior and after stapedotomy was evaluated. Prior to the operation no signal of otoacoustic emission was registered, in 37 patients out of 60 the signal was present after the operation. DPOAE obtained postoperatively indicated successful ossicular chain restoration and inner ear function. Audiometric evaluation in reference to the group of 905 stapedotomies performed in years 1992-2001 showed that most of the patients were in group B--443/905 and C--402/905 according, in A group--60/905 according to Shambaugh. A-B gap < or = 10 dB was obtained in 469/905 (51.8%), the mean of the hearing threshold at 500, 1000, 2000 and 4000 Hz was 24.3 dB (+/- 8.3, med. 25.0) in A group and 32.0 dB in B and C group. The result of stapedotomy in reference to tinnitus based on the patients' subjective opinion. We may conclude that the key to the stapes surgery lies in the training and skillfulness of the surgeon using save small hole technique with stapedial tendon preservation to obtain the optimal physiologic function of the middle ear and to gain the best hearing results.

A brief history of audiology at Mayo Clinic.

Audiometric hearing tests were conducted at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester at the beginning of the 1930s. The list price for one of its audiometers at that time was 3,500 dollars, which translates into approximately 37,000 dollars in 2003 currency. Physicians and residents in training were responsible for conducting hearing tests in the 1930s and 1940s. In the early 1940s a registered nurse was trained as an audiometrist to assist for some of the audiometric testing. The first "consulting audiologist" at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester was hired in 1949, early in the development of audiology as a profession. Growth in demand for audiologic services for larger numbers of patients and in the variety of services provided to them led to marked increases in personnel, space, and specialization over the years.

History of the technological development of air conduction hearing aids.

This was a study of the history of the technological development of air conduction hearing aids, and a review of international literature on the subject. The technological evolution of amplification devices, from their origin to the present day, can be divided into seven distinct periods: the period of sound collectors, the period of hearing devices constructed from carbon, the period of vacuum tubes, the transistor period, the period of integrated circuits, the microprocessor period and the period of digital hearing instruments. Throughout these different stages, hearing instruments have progressively developed reaching their present state. The current era is itself undergoing constant development and change. With the introduction of new technologies, we expect that the rate of change will increase rapidly in the future.

[The jugular fossa--observations in a Norwegian medieval population]. / Fossa jugularis--observasjoner i en norsk middelalderpopulasjon.

A high jugular bulb and fossa has been observed in cases of bleeding complications in neur-otologic surgery, conductive and sensori-neural hearing loss, tinnitus and vertigo. Comparison of 311 skulls from the Oslo mediaeval material with data from other studies showed good agreement regarding the frequency of high fossae, dehiscences, and side and sex differences. The correlation (Pearson's r) of fossa size between the two sides, with the right as the independent variable, and also the correlation between foramen size and fossa depth was less than expected from descriptions in anatomical texts based on visual observations.

Genomics and hearing impairment.

Hearing impairment is clinically and genetically heterogeneous. There are >400 disorders in which hearing impairment is a characteristic of the syndrome, and family studies demonstrate that there are at least 30 autosomal loci for nonsyndromic hearing impairment. The genes that have been identified encode diaphanous (HDIA1), alpha-tectorin (TECTA), the transcription factor POU4F3, connexin 26 (GJB2), and two unconventional myosins (MYO7A and MYO15), and four novel proteins (PDS, COCH, DFNA5, DFNB9). The same clinical phenotype in hearing-impaired individuals, even those within the same family, can result from mutations in different genes. Conversely, mutations in the same gene can result in a variety of clinical phenotypes with different modes of inheritance. For example, mutations in the gene encoding MYO7A cause Usher syndrome type IB, autosomal-recessive nonsyndromic hearing impairment (DFNB2), and autosomal-dominant nonsyndromic hearing impairment (DFNA11). Additionally, the mouse ortholog of the MYO7A gene is the shaker-1 gene. Mouse models such as shaker-1 have facilitated the identification of genes that cause hearing impairment in humans. The availability of high-resolution maps of the human and mouse genomes and new technologies for gene identification are advancing molecular understanding of hearing impairment and the complex mechanisms of the auditory system.

[Why perform history: Prosper Meniere (1799-1862) at the medical history of Rome]. / Pourquoi faire de l'histoire: Prosper Menière (1799-1862) et l'histoire médicale de Rome.

Scrutinizing the prefatory letters and the introductions of Meniere's studies on the medical history of ancient Rome, the author shows why the famous doctor of the Institution des sourds-muets was interested in history.

Some traditional treatments of hearing problems in Brittany and Wales.

The traditions of the healing of deafness associated with the Celtic saints in Brittany and Wales are discussed. Many more have survived in Brittany because of the religious continuity in that country. Three Saints Cadoc (of Welsh origin), Egarec (of Irish origin) and Meriadec (of Breton origin) are associated with such traditions in a number of different locations.

[History of instrumental measuring of hearing acuity: the first acumeter]. / Zur Geschichte der apparativen Hörschärfemessung: Die ersten Akumeter.

The necessity of measuring the acuity of hearing in a reproducible way arose for the first time when the invention of Volta's pile in 1800 seemed to present the opportunity of curing deafness. For this purpose Chr. H. Wolke in Jever, Northern Germany, in 1802 devised two instruments which he called "acumeter". Details of these instruments were hardly known, and Wolke's publication was believed to be lost. The author has now succeeded in tracing Wolke's publication and another associated paper by J. J. A. Sprenger. Hence, the circumstances of Wolke's and Sprenger's work and details of these first acumeters are now being published together with original figures and the correct dimensions of the instruments. The acumeters had a pendulum-like hammer that would strike against a plate swinging down from varying heights that could be read in degrees of angle from a scale. One of the instruments was made of wood. It was 1.50 m high, with the pendulum raised to the maximal position 2.70 m. The other instrument of similar construction was made of metal and about half the size of the first one, with a height of 0.70 m or 1.30 m respectively. For comparison Itard's acumeter is presented which was published in 1821. It worked on the same principle, and it is likely that Itard had been inspired by Wolke's paper. The development of mechanical acumeters after Wolke's and Itard's instruments is outlined briefly.