Objective The purpose of the present study was to test the hypothesis that cochlear implant (CI) users’ music perception is correlated with their lexical tone perception and the two types of perception share similar mechanisms in electric hearing. Design A lexical tone perception test and a pitch interval discrimination test were administered to a group of CI users and a group of normal-hearing (NH) listeners. Study sample Nineteen adult CI users and 10 NH listeners who are native-Mandarin-Chinese speakers participated in the study. Results Tone-perception performance of the CI group was, on average, 58.3% correct (± 19.78% correct), and performance of the NH group was near perfect. The CI group had a mean threshold of 5.66 semitones (± 5.57 semitones) in pitch discrimination as compared to the threshold of 0.44 semitone from the NH group. There was a strong correlation between the CI users’ tone-perception performance and their pitch discrimination threshold (r=−0.75, p<0.001). Conclusion Musical and lexical pitch perception is strongly correlated with each other and they might share similar mechanisms in electric hearing.

Objectives: 1) To provide information on the treatment of pulsatile tinnitus (PT) with transtemporal extraluminal sigmoid sinus angioplasty (ESSA); and 2) to discuss the current clinical management of PT. Study Design: This was a retrospective study. Settings: Multi-institutional tertiary university medical centers. Patients: Fifty-four PT patients with transverse–sigmoid sinus enlargement and prominent transverse–sigmoid junction with or without sigmoid sinus wall anomalies or transverse sinus anomalies. Intervention: All patients underwent ESSA under local anesthesia. Main Outcome Measures: Intraoperative discoveries and surgical resolution of PT, morphology, and computational fluid dynamics. Results: Fifty-three of the 54 (98%) patients experienced a significant reduction in, or complete resolution of, PT after ESSA. No major surgical complications occurred, except for one case where we observed a full collapse of the sinus wall. On average, this surgery reduced the cross-sectional area at the transverse–sigmoid junction by 61.5%. Our intraoperative discoveries suggest that sigmoid sinus wall anomalies may not be a definitive cause of PT. The transverse–sigmoid sinus system was significantly larger (in term of both cross-sectional area and volume) on the ipsilesional side compared with the contralesional side. Following ESSA, the vascular wall pressure and vortex flow at the transverse–sigmoid junction decreased considerably, and the flow velocity and wall shear stress increased significantly. Conclusion: ESSA is a highly effective surgical technique for PT patients with transverse–sigmoid sinus enlargement and prominent transverse–sigmoid junction, regardless of whether they also have sigmoid sinus wall or transverse sinus anomalies. A large transverse–sigmoid system with prominent transverse–sigmoid junction is a predisposing factor for PT, and only by improving patients’ intrasinus hemodynamics could PT be resolved efficiently. In cases without complete obstruction of venous return, ESSA is safe. No postoperative complications related to neurological disorders were observed.

The perforations healed by means of epithelial migration. The epithelial generation center was located near the annulus and the handle of the malleus, and therefore protection of these two regions is very important in middle ear surgery.

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ObjectivesTo show that mechanical compression of sigmoid sinus is effective for treatment of pulsatile tinnitus caused by sigmoid sinus enlargement, and to evaluate the relationship between the compression degree of sigmoid sinus and the tinnitus symptom relief using magnetic resonance angiography.MethodsMedical records of twenty-four patients who were diagnosed with venous tinnitus caused by sigmoid sinus enlargement and underwent mechanical compression of sigmoid sinus were reviewed between April 2009 and May 2013. All these patients received computed tomography and magnetic resonance venography study before undergoing surgery and were followed for at least 4 months.ResultsTwenty-three patients felt relief from tinnitus three months after the surgery, and the cross-sectional area of the sigmoid sinus on the tinnitus side was compressed approximately by half (46%-69%) after the surgery. There were 4 patients whose tinnitus suddenly disappeared while lying on the operating table before operation, which may be a result of the patient's emotional tension or postural changes from standing. One of the four patients felt no relief from tinnitus after the surgery, with the cross-sectional area of the sigmoid sinus only compressed by 30%. And two patients of them had a recurrence of tinnitus about 6 months after the surgery. Seven patients had sigmoid sinus diverticula, and tinnitus would not disappear merely by eliminating the diverticulum until by compressing the sigmoid sinus to certain degree. There were 3 minor complications, including aural fullness, head fullness and hyperacusis. The preoperative low frequency conductive and sensorineural hearing loss of 7 subjects subsided.ConclusionMechanical compression of sigmoid sinus is an effective treatment for pulsatile tinnitus caused by sigmoid sinus enlargement, even if it might be accompanied by sigmoid sinus diverticulum. A compression degree of sigmoid sinus about 54% is adequate for the relief of tinnitus symptom. Cases in which patients' tinnitus suddenly disappeared before the surgery might be excluded to improve the efficacy of surgery.

4 Laryngoscope, 127:2382-2388, 2017.

The vibrations of a thinned sigmoid plate and exposed sinus vessel wall in patients with sigmoid sinus wall anomalies (SSWAs) have long been speculated to be a pivotal cause of venous pulsatile tinnitus (PT). This is the first in vivo study to investigate whether vibrations resulting from SSWAs induce PT using multiple sensor systems. A confocal laser displacement sensor system was intraoperatively deployed to gauge displacements of the focal anatomical structure in 12 subjects with venous PT with or without SSWAs. Doppler ultrasonography was performed to detect the blood flow and psychoacoustic characteristics of PT. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and piezoelectric sensors were deployed to assess the relationship between the vessel wall pressure and hemodynamics. The ultrasonographic examination showed that the PT pitch matched the blood flow sampled at the center of the sinus lumen in all subjects and that there was no statistical difference between the displacements of the sigmoid plate and vessel wall before separation, indicating that PT is strongly associated with flow-induced noise rather than vibration-induced noise. In addition, the quantitative water occlusion test can be potentially indicative for the surgical and mechanistic study of PT.1. # indicates vascular displacement after the separation procedure (step 2). 2. ^ indicates the values obtained from CFD simulation.

Melanoma is the deadliest type of skin cancer. CD20+ melanoma stem cells (CSCs) are pivotal for metastasis and initiation of melanoma. Therefore, selective elimination of CD20+ melanoma CSCs represents an effective treatment to eradicate melanoma. Salinomycin has emerged as an effective drug toward various CSCs. Due to its poor solubility, its therapeutic efficacy against melanoma CSCs has never been evaluated. In order to target CD20+ melanoma CSCs, we designed salinomycin-loaded lipid-polymer nanoparticles with anti-CD20 aptamers (CD20-SA-NPs). Using a single-step nanoprecipitation method, salinomycin-loaded lipid-polymer nanoparticles (SA-NPs) were prepared, then CD20-SA-NPs were obtained through conjugation of thiolated anti-CD20 aptamers to SA-NPs via a maleimide-thiol reaction. CD20-SA-NPs displayed a small size of 96.3 nm, encapsulation efficiency higher than 60% and sustained drug release ability. The uptake of CD20-SA-NPs by CD20+ melanoma CSCs was significantly higher than that of SA-NPs and salinomycin, leading to greatly enhanced cytotoxic effects in vitro, thus the IC values of CD20-SA-NPs were reduced to 5.7 and 2.6 μg/mL in A375 CD+20 cells and WM266-4 CD+ cells, respectively. CD20-SA-NPs showed a selective cytotoxicity toward CD20+ melanoma CSCs, as evidenced by the best therapeutic efficacy in suppressing the formation of tumor spheres and the proportion of CD20+ cells in melanoma cell lines. In mice bearing melanoma xenografts, administration of CD20-SA-NPs (salinomycin 5 mg·kg·d, iv, for 60 d) showed a superior efficacy in inhibition of melanoma growth compared with SA-NPs and salinomycin. In conclusion, CD20 is a superior target for delivering drugs to melanoma CSCs. CD20-SA-NPs display effective delivery of salinomycin to CD20+ melanoma CSCs and represent a promising treatment for melanoma.