Otoconia are biominerals within the utricle and saccule of the inner ear that are critical for the perception of gravity and linear acceleration. The classical mouse mutant tilted (tlt) and a new allele, mergulhador (mlh), are recessive mutations that affect balance by impairing otoconial morphogenesis without causing collateral deafness. The mechanisms governing otoconial biosynthesis are not ...

Laryngocele is an air-filled, abnormal dilation of the laryngeal saccule that extends upward within the false vocal fold, in communication with the laryngeal lumen. A case of 43-year-old male with bilateral internal laryngoceles, who has been treated as asthma for 4 years, is presented. The patient had dyspnea, cough, and excessive phlegm for a month and a late onset stridor. Flexible nasophary...

Otoconia taken from the maculae of the saccule and utricle of the rat inner ear were investigated using transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Their ultrastructure was compared using various decalcification techniques. Similar preparations were analyzed using sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) to assess their protein constituents. TEM results show loss of orga...

A 55-year-old man reported having recurrent spontaneous attacks of rotatory vertigo lasting 1–5 seconds and occurring up to 10 times daily and often associated with attacks of right ear tinnitus for more than 3 years. Caloric testing showed a right peripheral vestibular deficit. Cervical vestibular myogenic potentials showed impaired function of the right saccule. An audiogram was normal. MRI (...

The tilted (tlt) mouse carries a recessive mutation causing vestibular dysfunction. The defect in tlt homozygous mice is limited to the utricle and saccule of the inner ear, which completely lack otoconia. Genetic mapping of tlt placed it in a region orthologous with human 4p16.3-p15 that contains two loci, DFNA6 and DFNA14, responsible for autosomal dominant, nonsyndromic hereditary hearing im...

For a period of 10 months, the perceptive-motor skills of golden hamsters were tested as part of an experiment to investigate vestibular controlled behaviour. We found that four out of 40 hamsters had more difficulties with swimming and equilibrium maintenance than the rest of the group. These disturbances either were apparent during the first months of testing or developed at a later period. I...

Triatoma brasiliensis Neiva is the most important vector of the Chagas' disease in the semiarid zones of North-eastern Brazil. Adult bugs have two main pairs of exocrine glands, the metasternal and the Brindley's glands, which release volatiles possibly with defense, alarm and/or mating functions. To date, anatomical and histological studies of the metasternal and the Brindley's glands in the g...

Vestibular hearing in human is evoked as a result of the auditory sensitivity of the saccule to low-frequency high-intensity tone. The objective was to investigate the relationship between vestibular hearing using cervical vestibular-evoked myogenic potentials (cVEMPs) and speech processing via word recognition scores in white noise (WRSs in wn). Intervention comprised of audiologic examination...

Quantitative electron probe microanalysis and electron spectroscopic diffraction analysis was used to determine the gradient of distribution of calcium and its crystalline pattern at different levels (lower gelatinous membrane, upper gelatinous membrane and otoliths) in the otoconial membrane of adult OF1 mice. Our quantitative electron probe microanalytical data, obtained with scanning-transmi...

Objective: To estimate the relationship between saccular dysfunction and low frequency age-related sensorineural hearing loss (a-SNHL). Methods: In this case-control study, sixty old men volunteers evaluated met inclusion criteria. They presented to the audiology department of Hamadan University of medical sciences (Hamadan, Iran). After history taking, all of audiological tests done on same. R...