OBJECTIVE To test whether complement activation is associated with sudden deafness. DESIGN Plasma samples obtained from patients in the acute phase of sudden deafness were analyzed for complement activation measured by C3bc levels and terminal complement complex. Comparisons were made with plasma samples from healthy controls. PATIENTS Twenty-five adult patients with unilateral sudden deafn...

A case is described of a patient who has a compelling and persistent desire to become deaf. She often kept cotton wool moistened with oil in her ears and was learning sign language. Living without sound appeared to be a severe form of avoidance behavior from hyperacusis and misophonia. She had a borderline personality disorder that was associated with a poor sense of self. Her desire to be deaf...

In order to elucidate the pathophysiology of an undetermined conductive deafness without perforation of the tympanic membrane, comparative study was made in several factor with conductive deafness which has normal tympanic membrane and may be due to inflammation. Differences and similarities in the manner of ossicular damage were discussed in these conductive deafness. The morbidity rate of con...

Deafness is the most common form of sensory impairment in humans. Mutations in unconventional myosins have been found to cause deafness in humans and mice. The mouse recessive deafness mutation, Snell's waltzer, contains an intragenic deletion in an unconventional myosin, myosin VI (locus designation, Myo6). The requirement for Myo6 for proper hearing in mice makes this gene an excellent candid...

OBJECTIVE To study the causes and prevalence of sensorineural deafness in Bangladeshi children resident in East London. METHODS This was a cross sectional survey of children of Bangladeshi origin living in East London with bilateral sensorineural hearing loss of 40 db HL or more. In this study, 134 patients were included. The study looked primarily at the causes of sensorineural hearing loss ...

BACKGROUND A high prevalence of an A-to-G mutation at nucleotide 3243 of the mitochondrial genome in patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) and/or deafness has been reported previously. We investigated the prevalence of this mutation in Japanese dialysis patients with associated DM and/or deafness. METHODS We studied 106 dialysis patients with DM, 26 with DM and deafness, and 26 with deafness a...

The acute-phase inflammatory response in the peripheral bloodstream can be an expression of transient cerebral ischaemia in idiopathic sudden deafness. For this, a neurological and otorhinolaryngological examination of each patient, performing tests on audiometry, and tympanometry, haemogram, and cranial magnetic resonance were performed. The acute-phase inflammatory response manifests as an in...

This study had two aims: first, to investigate the attitudes of deaf and hearing people towards deafness; and, secondly, to study the difference between how deaf people perceive the attitudes of hearing people towards deafness, and how hearing people perceive the attitudes of deaf people towards deafness. The results showed that the deaf had more negative attitudes towards deafness than the hea...