Degeneration of cochlear sensory neurons is an important cause of hearing loss, but the mechanisms that maintain the survival of adult cochlear sensory neurons are not clearly defined. We now provide evidence implicating the neuregulin (NRG)-erbB receptor signaling pathway in this process. We found that NRG1 is expressed by spiral ganglion neurons (SGNs), whereas erbB2 and erbB3 are expressed b...

Type I spiral ganglion cells provide the afferent innervation to the inner hair cells of the mammalian organ of Corti and project centrally to the cochlear nucleus. While single-unit studies conducted over the past several decades have provided a wealth of information concerning the response characteristics of these neurons and, to some extent, their receptor targets, little is known about the ...

Among congenital ossicular anomalies without external ear atresia, malleus fixation is least common. We report a case of congenital malleus fixation by a bony bar connecting the malleus neck to the posterior tympanic wall, which was depicted on thin-section CT scans.

CONCLUSION The saccular duct and endolymphatic sinus run in the bony groove, before reaching the orifice of the vestibular aqueduct. We first clinically visualized this sulciform groove using three-dimensional (3D) cone beam CT images. This strategy can be useful to assess the condition of the saccular duct and endolymphatic sinus concerning the longitudinal flow system of endolymph. OBJECTIV...

background paranasal sinus ct has high sensitivity and specificity for sinusitis. however, this modality is costly and involves greater radiation exposure than plain radiographs. objectives we tried to compare 10-cut limited ct scan and standard ct scan in the diagnosis of sinusitis. materials and methods we conducted a cross sectional case series from august to december 2010 on 150 patients wi...

conclusions there was no statistically significant difference in the parotid absorbed dose between spiral tomography and a panoramic radiograph (p value = 0.18). the overall results of this study were similar to other studies. results for the tube side parotid, the average absorbed doses in spiral tomography of the anterior and posterior parts of the maxilla and mandible, with the 2 mm slice th...

BACKGROUND Otitis media (OM), one of the most common pediatric infectious diseases, causes inner ear inflammation resulting in vertigo and sensorineural hearing loss. Previously, we showed that spiral ligament fibrocytes (SLFs) recognize OM pathogens and up-regulate chemokines. Here, we aim to determine a key molecule derived from SLFs, contributing to OM-induced inner ear inflammation. METHO...