Evidence is presented to support the hypothesis that the cochleae of young animals are more susceptible to auditory trauma than the cochleae of the adult. A sensitive period of heightened susceptibility to acoustic trauma from noise exposure has been demonstrated in three mammalian species. The cochlear pathology associated with this trauma is severe damage to the outer hair cell system. Abnorm...

OBJECTIVE To systematically evaluate the noise generated by toys targeted for children and to compare the results over the course of 4 consecutive holiday shopping seasons. STUDY DESIGN Experimental study. SETTING Academic medical center. SUBJECTS AND METHODS During 2008-2011, more than 200 toys marketed for children older than 6 months were screened for loudness. The toys with sound outp...

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the treatment of tinnitus with electrical stimulation. Five hundred patients with tinnitus were treated with probe electrical stimulation. Causes of tinnitus were sensorineural hearing loss (303 patients), Meniere's disease (88), infection (25), head trauma (39), acoustic trauma (25), ototoxicity (4), and chemotherapy (2). Treatment involved 6 to 10 tra...

The present work was designed to study the influence of the stresses upon the inner ear. Guinea pigs were put in the state of stress by using electric stimulation (80V, 0.7sec., at 10sec. intervals) and light stimulation (electronic flash or electric bulb), and the influence of these stimulations upon the inner ear was observed. A) The susceptibility to acoustic trauma in animals was excited by...

Oxidative stress is considered a major cause of the structural and functional changes associated with auditory pathologies induced by exposure to acute acoustic trauma AAT). In the present study, we examined the otoprotective effects of 2,4-disulfophenyl-N-tert-butylnitrone (HPN-07), a nitrone-based free radical trap, on the physiological and cellular changes in the auditory system of chinchill...

Cochlear hair cells transduce mechanical stimuli into electrical activity. The site of hair cell transduction is the hair bundle, an array of stereocilia with different height arranged in a staircase. Tip links connect the apex of each stereocilium to the side of its taller neighbor. The hair bundle and tip links of hair cells are susceptible to acoustic trauma and ototoxic drugs. It has been s...

INTRODUCTION Although several treatment approaches have been proposed for tinnitus, there are currently no Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved agents available to treat this condition. In this study, we evaluated the effect of gabapentin on the sensation of subjective tinnitus in patients with acoustic trauma referring to the ear, nose and throat (ENT) clinic of Taleghani Hospital durin...

The purpose of this study was to reveal synaptic plasticity within the dorsal cochlear nucleus (DCN) as a result of noise trauma and to determine whether effective antioxidant protection to the cochlea can also impact plasticity changes in the DCN. Expression of synapse activity markers (synaptophysin and precerebellin) and ultrastructure of synapses were examined in the DCN of chinchilla 10 da...