Today, a male in his late 20s came into the clinic. The client participated in the hearing screenings by the 1yr speech grads. The client's results came back normal, but he came into the clinic to have an evaluation regardless. The sessions began with a case hx of the client. The case case hx revealed the client hunted. The client said he did not use protection, but I'm not sure if that included target shooting also. Hunting without ear protection is reasonable, but target practice without protection is not. With hunting, very few shots are taken. While target shooting, many shots are fired. Next, video otoscopy was used to view the EAC and TM. EACs showed acceptable amounts of cerumen, but small amounts of blood from the client using cotton swabs. Tympanometry showed a normal curve for the client's right ear, but a very slightly shifted curve to the left. The clinician said it was still normal. The final step of the battery was puretone audiometry. The client's thresholds all fell within normal limits. Before the client left, the clinician showed and explained the audiogram to the client.
I found a little article about using leupeptin to prevent hearing loss. In summary, they injected chinchillas with leupeptin in one cochlea but left the opther alone. Then, they exposed the chinchillas to 48 hours of 100dB and 105dB of noise. The chinchillas' injected cochleas were left relatively undamaged while the other was nearly destroyed.
All ears: potential help for noise-induced hearing loss. (1999). Enironmental Health Perspectives, 107 (9), A448-A449. Retrieved October 19, 2007, from JSTOR database.
Friday, October 19, 2007
Saturday, October 13, 2007
Sixth Obeservation 10-10-07
My sixth observation was of a DPS employee. A middle aged female came in for the required HE. The session started with the client filling out a case Hx. The case Hx showed the client does use hearing protection when shooting fire arms and other noisy hobbies. The client was then sat down for the video otoscopy. The otoscopy showed normal TMs with an acceptable amount of wax. Next was the tympanometry. The client's TMs moved accordingly for a normally functioning ear. The next step in the HE was puretone audiometry. The test proved normal. Finally, the client was shown the audiogram from her last visit and then it was compared to this visit. The audiograms were in complete agreement, as any threshold differences were with in normal clinical error.
Here is a simple little article about protecting your hearing. While we assume most of it as common sense, audiologist need to make sure our clients are aware of the things you can do to protect your hearing. One thing i learned from the article is a temporal bone fracture can damage your hearing or even puncture the TM. Cool article, it would be a nice article to have around a clinic while a client is waiting.
Fritscher-Porter, K. (2002). Portect your hearing. Vibrant Life, 18, (5), 36. Retrieved October 13, 2007, from LexisNexis Academic database.
Here is a simple little article about protecting your hearing. While we assume most of it as common sense, audiologist need to make sure our clients are aware of the things you can do to protect your hearing. One thing i learned from the article is a temporal bone fracture can damage your hearing or even puncture the TM. Cool article, it would be a nice article to have around a clinic while a client is waiting.
Fritscher-Porter, K. (2002). Portect your hearing. Vibrant Life, 18, (5), 36. Retrieved October 13, 2007, from LexisNexis Academic database.
Fifth Observation 10-3-07
There was no one scheduled for my time slot, so i read an article about presbycusis instead. I remember in class Dr. Payne said that there was no proof old age caused hearing loss because they found in some tribes that are not around high levels of noise, the elders don't have losses.
I found a pretty neat article that focused on the contributions of genetics and the environment on AC thresholds. The study looked at the frequencies of 500Hz to 4000Hz and the SRT of the better ear (BE). The study only used female twins with the mean age of 68. The prevalence of HL, noise exposure, HA usage, auditory diseases, and accidents were made known. One experienced audiologist did all the testing to standardize the clinical aspect. Some twins had good hearing while others had poor hearing, so the hearing range was represented. A study done with mice found that the age related loss was genetic. Thus, inheriting hearing genes was more significant than once thought.
In summary, the study found that a family history of age related loss was more likely to cause a hearing loss. People with a family Hx of HL benefit more from the use of hearing protection. Genes play a significant role in HL. Example, a damaging noise to one person may not damage another's hearing. Genes affect susceptibility. This study did not try to identify the genes that cause genetic losses, but may be a good basis for research. The results found in the article should not be directly generalized to other populations per the author of the article.
My thoughts: I was really impressed with the article. I thought it was neat to think of genes as the culprit for age related losses. The article also made me wonder how can some noises be damaging to one's hearing, but not another's. Great article, i would suggest reading it.
Viljanen, A., Era, P., Kaprio, J., Pyykko, I., Koskenvuo, M., & Rantanen, T. (2007). Genetic and environmental influences on hearing in older women. The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences, 62A(4), 447. Retrieved October 1, 2007, from http://biomed.gerontologyjournals.org.www.libproxy.wvu.edu/cgi/reprint/62/4/447?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&fulltext=genetic&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=0&volume=62&issue=4&resourcetype=HWCIT.
I found a pretty neat article that focused on the contributions of genetics and the environment on AC thresholds. The study looked at the frequencies of 500Hz to 4000Hz and the SRT of the better ear (BE). The study only used female twins with the mean age of 68. The prevalence of HL, noise exposure, HA usage, auditory diseases, and accidents were made known. One experienced audiologist did all the testing to standardize the clinical aspect. Some twins had good hearing while others had poor hearing, so the hearing range was represented. A study done with mice found that the age related loss was genetic. Thus, inheriting hearing genes was more significant than once thought.
In summary, the study found that a family history of age related loss was more likely to cause a hearing loss. People with a family Hx of HL benefit more from the use of hearing protection. Genes play a significant role in HL. Example, a damaging noise to one person may not damage another's hearing. Genes affect susceptibility. This study did not try to identify the genes that cause genetic losses, but may be a good basis for research. The results found in the article should not be directly generalized to other populations per the author of the article.
My thoughts: I was really impressed with the article. I thought it was neat to think of genes as the culprit for age related losses. The article also made me wonder how can some noises be damaging to one's hearing, but not another's. Great article, i would suggest reading it.
Viljanen, A., Era, P., Kaprio, J., Pyykko, I., Koskenvuo, M., & Rantanen, T. (2007). Genetic and environmental influences on hearing in older women. The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences, 62A(4), 447. Retrieved October 1, 2007, from http://biomed.gerontologyjournals.org.www.libproxy.wvu.edu/cgi/reprint/62/4/447?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&fulltext=genetic&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=0&volume=62&issue=4&resourcetype=HWCIT.
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
Fourth Observation 9-26-07
My fourth observation was another speech diagnoistic client. The session began with a case history of the client. The client's case history revealed mild asthma and high allergies. Next, the client sat in the booth for OAE testing. The clinician stayed in the booth with client as the supervisor performed the OAE test. The surpervisor used the Scout 6 program for the OAE. After the OAE, the surpervisor performed SRTs using the carrier phrase, "point to your ____". The SRTs proved to be within normal limits. During this, the clinician stayed in the booth with the client. Next, the surpervisor tried to use the VRA to get thresholds, but the client was being a little fussy, so the surpervisor decided to do a warble tone screening to get a good estimate of the client's hearing level. Next, the clinician did tympanometry. The right ear's TM gave a normal curve, while the left ear's TM showed a shift of the curve. The type C curve suggested negative pessure. The battery of ytest concluded that the child had normal hearing and should be able to proceed in the speech cliinc. I've been lucky to see children since we dont get many children in the clinic. Even though this little guy was a little fussy, it was a good experince.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)