Hearing loss in Australian divers

Permanent hearing loss of the sensorineural type has been demonstrated to be an occupational hazard of professional SCUBA divers. An audiometric survey was performed on a group of professional abalone divers, all of whom had experienced excessive exposure to dysbaric conditions. The results of this survey revealed that, even allowing for the very liberal requirements of the Australian Standard for divers, over 60% had unacceptable sensorineural, high frequency deafness. In half these cases deafness was unilateral, and in half bilateral. Making allowance for age, two-thirds had hearing loss to a degree which is compensable, according to the method of the National Acoustic Laboratories (1974) for determining proportional loss of hearing.     

Thermal loss in Antarctic divers

The occurrence of hypothermia is a major consideration in Antarctic diving operations. Rectal temperature measurements were carried out in two ANARE expeditioners before and after dives in Antarctic waters. In current diving programmes and with present equipment, only small falls in rectal temperature were observed after dives. Therefore, significant hypothermia would not be likely to occur during diving operations which employ present practices.     

Graves病患者的听力损失与发病机制探讨

目的 研究Graves病患者的听力损失情况,探索可能的发病机制.方法 纳入2019年9月至2021年3月在兰州大学第二医院门诊和住院部初诊的39例Graves病患者和22名健康对照受试者.HHIE-S量表初步评估受试者有无自觉听力损失,同时进行甲状腺激素和TRAB水平检测、纯音测听和声导抗检查,判断听力损失和激素水平及...     

Hearing loss in elderly patients in a family practice.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate hearing loss in elderly patients. DESIGN: Cohort study. SETTING: Family practice. PATIENTS: All ambulatory patients 65 years of age or older who attended the practice from June to August 1989. OUTCOME MEASURES: The Hearing Handicap Inventory for the Elderly--Screening Version (HHIE-S) and the Welch-Allyn Audioscope. Patients who failed one or both of the screening tests were referred to a speech and hearing clinic for audiologic assessment and treatment recommendations. Those with hearing aids were excluded from the main study but were given the opportunity to have them assessed at the clinic. MAIN RESULTS: Of 157 eligible patients 42 were excluded: 16 refused to participate, 13 already had hearing aids, and 13 could not be contacted. Of the remaining 115, 34 failed one or both of the tests (14 failed the HHIE-S, 9 failed the audioscope test, and 11 failed both). Of the 34, 25 completed the audiologic assessment at the clinic. Fifteen were found to have severe hearing impairment; the recommendation was hearing aids for 12, further assessment for 2 and no treatment for 1. Of the remaining 10 patients it was thought that 6 would benefit from hearing aids. Ten of the 11 patients with hearing aids who agreed to undergo testing at the clinic were found to need an adjustment or replacement of their devices. CONCLUSIONS: Hearing loss is a significant problem in elderly patients in primary practice. Further study is required to determine which of the two screening tools is most effective. Most elderly patients with hearing aids may require modification or replacement of their devices.     

Use of Otoacoustic Emissions (OAE) to detect sub-clinical inner ear damage in divers of the Indian Navy

Background

Professional Divers are at a high risk of Sensorineural Hearing Impairment. Divers may sustain sub-clinical hearing loss that is not identified on pure tone audiometry (PTA). Otoacoustic Emissions (OAE) reflect the functional status of the Outer Hair Cells. OAE testing constitutes the only non-invasive means of objective cochlear investigation and may be a more sensitive measure than PTA in identifying sub-clinical hearing loss.

Methods

This cross-sectional study was performed to determine utility of Otoacoustic Emissions testing in detecting sub-clinical Inner Ear damage in divers of Indian Navy. Transient Evoked Otoacoustic Emissions (TEOAE) levels were measured in 50 audiologically asymptomatic ship divers of Indian Navy and compared with control group comprising of 50 normal hearing individuals.

Results

No statistically significant differences were observed between the study and control group. Also no correlation was observed between diving years and TEOAE levels. There was no correlation greater than −0.49 between diving years and TEOAE SNR.

Conclusions

We concluded that TEOAE levels are not a sensitive tool in identifying ships divers without any history of noise exposure at risk for developing hearing loss.     

Use of Otoacoustic Emissions (OAE) to detect sub-clinical inner ear damage in divers of the Indian Navy

Background

Professional Divers are at a high risk of Sensorineural Hearing Impairment. Divers may sustain sub-clinical hearing loss that is not identified on pure tone audiometry (PTA). Otoacoustic Emissions (OAE) reflect the functional status of the Outer Hair Cells. OAE testing constitutes the only non-invasive means of objective cochlear investigation and may be a more sensitive measure than PTA in identifying sub-clinical hearing loss.

Methods

This cross-sectional study was performed to determine utility of Otoacoustic Emissions testing in detecting sub-clinical Inner Ear damage in divers of Indian Navy. Transient Evoked Otoacoustic Emissions (TEOAE) levels were measured in 50 audiologically asymptomatic ship divers of Indian Navy and compared with control group comprising of 50 normal hearing individuals.

Results

No statistically significant differences were observed between the study and control group. Also no correlation was observed between diving years and TEOAE levels. There was no correlation greater than −0.49 between diving years and TEOAE SNR.

Conclusions

We concluded that TEOAE levels are not a sensitive tool in identifying ships divers without any history of noise exposure at risk for developing hearing loss.     

Hearing loss and contributing factors among airport workers in Malaysia

Sensorineural hearing loss is a common and important source of disability among the workers and often caused by occupational noise exposure. Aims of the study were to determine the prevalence and contributing factors of hearing loss among airport workers. A cross-sectional study was carried out at an airport in Malaysia. This study used stratified sampling method that involved 358 workers who were working in 3 different units between November 2008 and March 2009. Data for this study were collected by using questionnaires eliciting sociodemographic, occupational exposure history (previous and present), life-style including smoking habits and health-related data. Otoscopic and pure-tone audiometric tests were conducted for hearing assessment. Noise exposure status was categorize by using a noise logging dosimeter to obtain 8-hour Time-Weighted Average (TWA). Data was analyzed by using SPSS version 12.0.1 and EpiInfo 6.04. The prevalence of hearing loss was 33.5%. Age >40 years old (aOR 4.3, 95%CI 2.2-8.3) is the main risk factors for hearing loss followed by duration of noise exposure >5 years (aOR 2.5, 95%CI 1.4-4.7), smoking (aOR 2.1, 95%CI 1.2-3.4), duration of service >5 years (aOR 2.1, 95%CI 1.1-3.9), exposure to explosion (aOR 6.1, 95%CI 1.3-29.8), exposure to vibration (aOR 2.2, 95%CI 1.1-4.3) and working in engineering unit (aOR 5.9, 95%CI 1.1-30.9). The prevalence rate ratio of hearing loss for nonsmokers aged 40 years old and younger, smokers aged 40 years old and younger, non-smokers older than 40 years old and smokers older than 40 years old was 1.0, 1.7, 2.8 and 4.6 respectively. This result contributes towards better understanding of risk factors for hearing loss, which is relatively common among Malaysian workers.     

Hearing loss attributed to desferrioxamine in patients with beta-thalassaemia major

Sensorineural hearing loss was detected in nine (33%) of 27 patients with beta-thalassaemia major. All were receiving regular hypertransfusion and nightly subcutaneous infusions of desferrioxamine. A retrospective analysis of these patients was undertaken to determine the risk factors for the development of deafness. No statistically significant differences were found between the affected and unaffected groups with respect to age, ferritin levels or lengths of time that they had received desferrioxamine, but the trends were similar to those reported by other authors. However, the desferrioxamine dosage was similar in both our groups (less than 60 mg/kg a day), and lower in the affected group than other authors have reported. Two patients experienced some resolution of their deafness when their dosage of desferrioxamine was lowered. These results suggest that the ototoxic effect of desferrioxamine is dose-related and can occur at relatively low doses of the drug.     

Hearing loss in the elderly. A survey in general practice.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the prevalence of undiagnosed hearing impairment in people aged 60 years or over in a general practice setting. DESIGN: A self-administered questionnaire followed by physical examination and audiometry. SETTING: A group general practice in the Melbourne suburb of Moorabbin. PATIENTS: Two hundred and one people aged 60 years or over who were not known to be hearing impaired. OUTCOME MEASURE: Results of air-conduction audiometry. RESULTS: Seventy-five of the 201 people had undiagnosed hearing loss (37%). The assessments of hearing ability by the patients and their relations were good predictors of the outcome of the audiogram (P < 0.001). Occupational history, medical history and physical examination were poor predictors (P > 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: The use of audiometry for screening for hearing impairment in older general practice patients is likely to have a high yield. A large proportion of people with abnormal audiograms will, however, refuse a hearing aid.