Background: Presbyacusis, or age-related hearing loss, has become a problem of increasing social interest due to the rise in the mean age of the population. Investigations performed to date have generally been carried out with the aid of self-reporting questionnaires, without the support of objective findings. Objective: The purpose of this study was to analyze an extensive series of elderly people from different areas of the Veneto region to obtain an epidemiological descriptive analysis, as detailed as possible, of their presbyacusis, considering their hearing thresholds at various frequencies, distinguishing findings according to sex and age in classes and the geographical area where the survey was performed. Methods: The survey was carried out collecting information from the audiometric reports on 13,710 subjects of both sexes aged 60 years and over, with a proportion of males (M/F × 100) of 92.02%, referred spontaneously for hearing examination to the ENT departments of eight hospitals between 1986 and 1994. The catchment area includes three provincial capitals and five mainly rural municipalities. Results: The results show that the hearing threshold rises progressively with age in both sexes. The hearing loss is milder in women than in men, especially at the higher frequencies. No important differences emerged among findings recorded in their 80s and in their 90s or among findings in the different geographical areas considered. Conclusions: Statistical descriptive analysis confirms the typical trend of the audiometric curve in presbyacusis, tracing the typical audiometric curve of old age described in the literature. The mean values of the audiometric curve reveal no significant differences between people residing in the country and people living in the cities.
We have studied certain epidemiological problems not often encountered in the literature, involving patients with sudden hearing loss. We performed a retrospective cross-sectional study on 183 patients at the University of Padova and found that: age at the onset of the hearing loss incurred is closely associated with the presence of concomitant diseases; partial or total recovery of hearing is strongly predicated by the variables of age at onset and the interval between onset of hearing loss and the beginning of treatment given. We have also used polar-coordinate diagrams to show that cases of sudden hearing loss tend to be cyclic and are more prevalent in the central months of each season.
The Wolfram syndrome is a rare dysmorphogenetic disease of autosomic recessive hereditary nature. The pathogenesis of the disease is still not well known. It is characterised by the presence of diabetes insipidus, diabetes mellitus, optic atrophy and deafness. Other anomalies, such as renal outflow tracts and multiple neurological disorders may develop later. In our case report the diabetes mellitus appeared at the age of 4; the hearing loss and renal disturbances at the age of 11; the optic atrophy at the age of 16. No signs of ataxia, diabetes insipidus and neurologic anomalies were found. The diagnosis of Wolfram syndrome is not always easy in the first stages of the disease. The suspect may come from the presence of a juvenile diabetes mellitus asssociated with optic atrophy. For the diagnosis a valid clue can be given from the results of some clinical tests such as the positivity of the visual evoked potentials and the retinogram reliefs and the exclusion of the autoimmune origin of the diabetes mellitus. Other signs such as the progressive sensorineural hearing loss, the presence of nystagmus and of urodynamic disturbances and renal complications makes the diagnosis of this syndrome easier.
We report a 71-year-old male patient with five separate primary metachronous squamous cell carcinomas of the head and neck (parotid, tongue, soft palate, larynx and hypopharynx) that occurred over a period of 8 years. The long survival of the patient after discovery of his first neoplasm (parotid) is the result of careful vigilance during the follow-up period and diligently planned therapies for each of his multiple primary tumors after radical surgery had been performed on his first neoplasm.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.