The objective of this study was to evaluate hearing impairment in patients affected by Parkinson's disease compared with hearing scores observed in normal age- and sex-matched controls. One hundred eighteen consecutive patients with a clinical diagnosis of Parkinson's disease were screened. Severity of motor symptoms and staging were measured with the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (section III) and the Hoehn and Yahr scale. Audiometric evaluation consisted of a comprehensive audiologic case history and questionnaire, visual otoscopic examination, acoustic immittance measures (tympanogram and acoustic reflexes), pure tone audiometry, and measurement of brain stem auditory-evoked potentials. Healthy age- and sex-matched subjects were selected as the control group. One hundred six of 118 patients were enrolled. Pure tone audiometry revealed age-dependent high-frequency hearing loss in patients with Parkinson's disease compared with both normative values and values for healthy age- and sex-matched controls (75/106 [71%], χ(2) = 5.959, P = .02; 92/106 [86.8%] vs 60/106 [56.6%], χ(2) = 23.804, P < .001, respectively). Pure tone audiometry scores correlated with Hoehn and Yahr scale scores (P < .05). Brain stem auditory-evoked potentials were normal in all patients. Our patients with Parkinson's disease showed age-dependent peripheral, unilateral, or bilateral hearing impairment. Whether these auditory deficits are intrinsic to Parkinson's disease or secondary to a more complex impaired processing of sensorial inputs occurring over the course of illness remains to be determined. Because α-synuclein is located predominately in the efferent neuronal system within the inner ear, it could affect susceptibility to noise-induced hearing loss or presbycusis. It is feasible that the natural aging process combined with neurodegenerative changes intrinsic to Parkinson's disease might interfere with cochlear transduction mechanisms, thus anticipating presbycusis.

Chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) is a common condition and affects the quality of life of approximately 16 % of adults in US and 10.9 % in Europe. Hyaluronan (HA) is a nonsulphate glycosaminoglycan found in the extracellular matrix of connective tissues, and plays an important role in the healing process and repair of mucosal surfaces. We aim to evaluate the effect of HA on nasal symptoms and endoscopic appearance in patients with CRS and nasal polyps (NP) who have not undergone sinus surgery. Eighty patients older than 18 years old were randomized to receive either open-label nebulized saline solution (NS) or intranasal corticosteroid spray (ICS) 200 lg bid or nebulized sodium hyaluronate (NHA, YABRO Ò ) or both ICS and NHA. Results were collected at 1 month, 3 months and 3 months after treatment. Significant improvements in nasal symptoms scores, endoscopic appearance scores, radiologic scores, rhinomanometry and saccharine clearance test were observed in the NHA, ICS and ICS ? NHA groups after 1 month and 3 months of treatment compared with baseline (all p B 0.005). The use of oral steroids was significantly reduced after 3 months of therapy in the same groups versus baseline (all p \ 0.05). The incidence of adverse events at 3 months was similar between the 4 groups (all p [ 0.05). Throat irritation, nasal burning and drug-related epistaxis were not reported in the group NHA. HA, as a nebulized nasal douche preparation, improved nasal symptoms and endoscopic appearances in patients with CRS and NP who have not undergone sinus surgery.

Developments in surgical technique and, more importantly, the use of increasingly sophisticated biocompatible prostheses have meant that good results can be achieved for otosclerosis sufferers in terms of restored hearing and very little postsurgical discomfort. We set out to assess whether the diameter of the prostheses used for stapedotomy (platinum piston/polytetrafluoroethylene, i.e. Teflon) has any effect on surgical outcome. Two groups of otosclerotic patients were selected, and these underwent stapedotomy surgery during the second phase of the disease. A piston-Teflon type prosthesis was used, 5.50 mm in terms of length but of different diameters (group A: 0.4 mm; group B: 0.6 mm). All the patients underwent the same pure-tone audiometry test before surgery, and then at 1 week and 1 month after surgery, to assess function. We compared air conduction after surgery with bone conduction before surgery. The data collected was analysed using the χ² (p < 0.05) test. This analysis showed that the results obtained with a 0.4-mm prosthesis or a 0.6-mm prosthesis are almost identical. There was no statistically significant difference in terms of hearing results when comparing either average tonal threshold or when analysing audiometric data frequency by frequency. It can be concluded, therefore, that in stapedotomy surgery, functional recovery is not affected by the diameter of the prosthesis used. A smaller diameter prosthesis is, however, the one of choice when the facial nerve is prominent or the oval window particularly narrow.

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Introduction and Purpose. Diffusion weighted imaging (DWI) has been proven to be valuable in the diagnosis of middle ear cholesteatoma. The aims of our study were to evaluate the advantage of multi-shot turbo spin echo (MSh TSE) DWI compared to single-shot echo-planar (SSh EPI) DWI for the diagnosis of cholesteatoma. Material and Methods. Thirty-two patients with clinical suspicion of unilateral cholesteatoma underwent preoperative MRI (1.5T) with SSh EPI and MSh TSE. Images were separately analyzed by 4 readers with different expertise to confirm the presence of cholesteatoma. Sensitivity, specificity, diagnostic accuracy, and positive (PPV) and negative predictive values (NPV) were assessed for each observer and interrater agreement was assessed using kappa statistics. Diagnosis was obtained at surgery. Results. Overall MSh TSE showed higher diagnostic accuracy and lower negative predictive value (NPV) compared to conventional SSh EPI. Interreader agreement between the observers revealed the superiority of MSh TSE compared to SSh EPI. Interrater agreement among all the four observers was higher by using MSh TSE compared to SSh EPI. Conclusion. Our findings suggest that MSh TSE DWI has higher sensitivity for detection of cholesteatoma and lower probability of misdiagnosis. MSh TSE DWI is useful in guiding less experienced observers to the diagnosis.