DEAFNESS RESEARCH UK internet: www.deafnessresearch.org.uk
registered charity no. 326915
The Deafness Research UK Information Service is accessible via:
* email: info@deafnessresearch.org.uk
* freephone: 0808 808 2222, Mon-Fri 9.30am-5.30pm
* freepost: FREEPOST WC4938, London, WC1X 8BR
textphone: 020 7915 1412
WHAT TO DO IF YOU SUDDENLY LOSE YOUR HEARING
A sudden loss of hearing usually affects just one ear (although both ears can be affected). As a guide, doctors will generally consider a
hearing loss to be sudden if it occurs either instantaneously or over a period of up to three days. In 85% of cases the cause is not known, but possible reasons can include a bacterial or viral infection, some vascular (relating to blood vessels) defect, or possible disorder of the immune system.
Although the strategy isn't fully proven, doctors treat sudden hearing loss as a medical emergency in order to maximise the chances of
treatment being effective. If you think you have a sudden hearing loss, you should see your GP immediately and ask for an urgent referral to an ear, nose and throat (ENT) specialist.
Sometimes a GP will assume that sudden deafness is due to fluid in the middle ear, or a middle ear infection, and prescribe a course of
decongestants. However, unless this is a firm diagnosis, urgent specialist attention should still be sought, if necessary at the nearest hospital accident and emergency department.
The most commonly administered treatment for sudden hearing loss is steroids. They have the effect of reducing inflammation and supporting the body's immune system.
Hearing returns to normal, or near normal, in about 70% of cases where the cause is unknown, but even if it seems to return quite quickly, an urgent investigation should still be carried out.
Deafness Research UK produces a factsheet on Sudden Sensorineural
Hearing Loss which can be downloaded from the Deafness Research UK website:
>> www.deafnessresearch.org.uk/?lid=2131
Or it can be sent free of charge by post:
>> www.deafnessresearch.org.uk/?lid=2129
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LIVING WITH THE FEAR OF SUDDEN HEARING LOSS
Ann Perry, from North Warwickshire, has had the very frightening experience of suddenly losing virtually all her hearing in one or other ear on three occasions.
The first occasion was fifteen years ago. "I was abroad at the time", she says "and couldn't return home to get treatment. I was left with a permanent hearing loss in my left ear, and tinnitus.
"The second occasion happened three years ago. My husband and I were just returning home from a shopping expedition when the remaining hearing in my right ear suddenly went, and at the same time I developed the most horrendous 'pneumatic drill' tinnitus. We drove straight to the hospital and I was prescribed a seven-day course of enteric-coated steroids (enteric delays release of the drug until it has passed through the stomach into the small intestine). About three weeks later the hearing started to come and go. Eventually it returned to its previous level and my tinnitus subsided.
"These episodes are a mystery as there is no history of hearing loss in my close family - apart from a paternal great aunt - and my health
at the time was fine."
She recently had a third attack, affecting the right ear again. This time she was treated with a soluble steroid, and her hearing began to
return within 14 hours.
"Whilst my recovery was quicker," she says, "I am now scared this will keep happening and that I will possibly lose a little of my emaining
hearing each time. You feel so helpless when there's no obvious cause.
"I contacted the Deafness Research UK Information Service to see if one of their medical advisers might be able to suggest a reason.
Whilst they can't know for sure, they have suggested I have my blood pressure tested and get checked for any potential vascular problems."
If you have a question for the Information Service, please get in touch.
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EARLIER COCHLEAR IMPLANTATION MAY
GIVE CHILDREN AN AUDITORY ADVANTAGE
Before young deaf children are given a cochlear implant, their communication tends to be mainly visual and silent. After implantation
they are expected to become more vocal and to make more use of their hearing (auditory ability). A Deafness Research UK study, carried out
by Dr Margaret Tait at The Ear Foundation in Nottingham, has been investigating whether the age at which they receive their implant affects how children progress.
The study compared three groups of children, implanted at the ages of one, two and three, to see what progress they made in the auditory processing of speech, and to see if this changed the way they communicated. The children were each videoed with a familiar adult, to see how often they responded vocally when they had not been in eye contact with the adult. A child who responds vocally to the adult in this way, without being prompted visually, is making an auditory response as well as a vocal one.
Before implantation, there was very little of this auditory behaviour in any of the three groups. However by 12 months after implantation,
the group implanted at one were making auditory responses most of the time, whereas those implanted at two and three had shown very little change; this difference was highly significant. Early implantation also influenced the way they communicated. Before implantation, around 80% of all the three groups were using signed communication rather than oral communication. Twelve months after implantation, the groups implanted at two and three had shown very little change, whereas of the group implanted at one, only 15% were still using signed communication, with the majority having moved to oral communication.
The findings indicate that the children in the study who received cochlear implants under the age of two show more vocal and auditory ability than those implanted between two and three, or between three and four. Earlier research has shown that this vocal and auditory
ability is strongly related to improved speech perception three, four, and five years after implantation. This would seem to put very young
implanted children in a good position to subsequently develop spoken language. Whether it will give them a permanent advantage remains to be shown.
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INVESTIGATING CENTRAL AUDITORY PROCESSING AND LEARNING
A Deafness Research UK PhD student is to join Professor Andrew King's laboratory at Oxford University in order to carry out exciting
research into the functional role of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine in central auditory processing and learning.
Previous research has shown that the brain is to some extent 'plastic', in that it can adapt to changes in the stimulants that reach it, and react differently accordingly. For example, when hearing loss occurs in one ear, at first it is impossible to discriminate where sounds are coming from, but as the brain gets used to changes in the sounds that reach it, it can be re-trained to localise sounds. The team at Oxford believe that acetylcholine may be responsible for the brain's ability to adapt to a deterioration in what we hear.
In the study, the student will test ferrets for their auditory discrimination, which is their ability to localise specific sounds. The team will confirm whether it is the neurotransmitter acetylcholine that is helping the brain to adapt, and also establish exactly how it
does this, firstly by looking at the effects of removing the neurotransmitter, and then seeing if these can be reversed by its re-introduction.
Brain plasticity and its relationship to learning and memory are cutting edge research areas and it is hoped that this study will improve our knowledge of the way in which sensory information is processed at higher levels of the brain, and the mechanisms responsible for auditory perceptual learning. The reorganisation of the brain is considered by some researchers to be a cause of tinnitus, and this research could also contribute to the further understanding and treatment of conditions such as auditory learning disorders and central auditory processing disorders.
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MOLECULAR CAUSE FOUND FOR ONE FORM OF DEAFNESS
Scientists exploring the physics of hearing have found an underlying molecular cause for one form of deafness, and a conceptual connection between deafness and the organization of liquid crystals, which are used in flat-panel displays.
Within the cochlea of the inner ear, sound waves cause the basilar membrane to vibrate. These vibrations stimulate hair cells, which then
trigger nerve impulses that are transmitted to the brain. Researchers have now learned that mutations in a protein called espin can cause floppiness in tiny bundles of protein filaments within the hair cells, impairing the passage of vibrations and resulting in deafness.
Filamentous actin (F-actin) is a rod-like protein that provides structural framework in living cells. F-actin is organized into bundles by espin, a linker protein found in sensory cells, including cochlear hair cells. Genetic mutations in espin's F-actin binding sites are linked to
deafness in mice and humans.
Researchers at the University of Illinois, led by Professor Gerard Wong, professor of materials science and engineering, found that the
structure of these bundles changes dramatically when normal espin is replaced with the espin mutants that cause deafness. The interior
structure of the bundles changes from a rigid, hexagonal array of uniformly twisted filaments, to a liquid crystalline arrangement of
filaments, and because this new organization causes the bundles to be more than a thousand times floppier, they cannot respond to sound in the same way.
In the liquid crystalline state, the bundles maintain their orientation order - that is, they point roughly along the same direction - but lose their positional order. Liquid crystals are commonly used in watch displays and laptop displays.
Wong and his colleagues also found that a mixture of mutant espin and normal espin would prevent the structural transition from occurring. This shows that if gene expression could turn on the production of just a fraction of normal espin linkers, a kind of rescue attempt at restoring hearing could, in principle, be made.
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PSYCHOTHERAPY MAY HELP TINNITUS SUFFERERS COPE
Psychotherapy may help tinnitus sufferers cope with the life disturbances that sometimes accompany their condition, according to a
new review of studies.
Tinnitus is a sensation of ringing or other noise when there is no external cause for the sound. A counselling method called cognitive
behavioral therapy (CBT) seems to improve patients' quality of life, even when the volume of the noise remains the same.
The review of six small randomized controlled trials gathered data on 285 patients. The article appears in the current issue of The Cochrane Library. After participating in CBT, tinnitus sufferers reported greater overall satisfaction with their life, compared to a similar
group of patients who did not receive CBT treatment, the Cochrane review found.
Cognitive behavioral therapy is used with good success as a treatment for depression. So lead reviewer Pablo Martinez-Devesa and his team thought CBT might lift the mood of tinnitus sufferers. "We were expecting, perhaps, to see a bigger improvement on the symptoms of depression, but we didn't find it," he said. Martinez-Devesa said the collected studies included just a small number of people with severe depression, so it may have been difficult to perceive a change in mood. CBT also failed to produce significant improvements in the
subjective (or perceived) volume of tinnitus, the review found.
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CHALLENGE YOURSELF TO SUPPORT OUR WORK
Deafness Research UK is offering loads of exciting sponsored overseas
challenges for our more adventurous supporters. We have treks and
cycles taking place all across the globe.
Our sponsored cycle ride through Cuba takes you from vibrant Havana to the relaxed, rural western province, to the dazzling beaches and clear blue seas of the Gulf of Mexico.
Our challenge in Iceland has you trekking in some of the world's most spectacular wilderness areas in Europe, with a mix of wild volcanic
landscape, steaming lava fields, icecaps, waterfalls and much more.
You can enter on your own as a great chance to make friends for life, but if you get a team of friends, family or work colleagues together,
you could also make your chosen event a fantastic group challenge.
Places on all our events are filling up fast, so don't delay in booking your place on a trip of a lifetime!
To find out the other destinations you could travel to, and for
further details about any of the various unforgettable experiences on
offer, go to the following web page or phone Claire Peel on 0207 833 1733.
>> www.deafnessresearch.org.uk/?lid=3272
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DEAFNESS RESEARCH UK
registered charity no. 326915
The Deafness Research UK Information Service is accessible via:
* email: info@deafnessresearch.org.uk
* freephone: 0808 808 2222, Mon-Fri 9.30am-5.30pm
* freepost: FREEPOST WC4938, London, WC1X 8BR
textphone: 020 7915 1412
internet: www.deafnessresearch.org.uk
© Deafness Research UK 2007
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