Search results for "audit"
showing 10 items of 1421 documents
Serial measurements of transient evoked otoacoustic emissions (TEOAEs) in healthy newborns and in newborns with perinatal infection.
1993
Detection of hearing impairment in early childhood is difficult. We serially recorded transient evoked otoacoustic emissions (TEOAEs) to search for signs of ototoxicity in term, healthy newborns and compared the results to a second group of term babies treated for perinatally acquired bacterial infection with ampicillin plus either cefotaxime or plus aminoglycoside. At initial evaluation, in the group of 45 healthy children born at term, well reproducible emissions were observed in all but two children. In each of these two, initially well reproducible TEOAEs were detected in one ear only. At the time of the second recording (mean at day 8.5) excellent emissions were seen in all ears of all…
Prevalence and risk factors for sensorineural hearing loss: Western Sicily overview.
2013
The objective of this work was to evaluate the prevalence of sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) and distribution of the main risk factors associated to it focusing on their role in the development of deafness and their interaction. We performed a global audiological assessment (through TEOAE, tympanometry and ABR) in 508 infants at risk studying the main risk factors reported by Joint Committee on Infant Hearing (2007). Fifty-one infants (10.03 %) were diagnosed with SNHL (45 bilateral and 6 unilateral) with a mean hearing threshold of 87.39 ± 28.25 dB HL; family history of hearing impairment (HI) and TORCH infections indicated independent significant risk factors (P < 0.00001 and P = 0.0…
The role of atopy in otitis media with effusion among primary school children: audiological investigation
2010
The objective of this study was to evaluate the role of atopy in otitis media with effusion (OME) in children attending primary school in western Sicily focusing on the audiological characteristics among atopic and non-atopic subjects suffering from OME. A total of 310 children (5-6 years old) were screened by skin tests and divided into atopics (G1) and non-atopics (G2). The samples were evaluated for OME by pneumatic otoscopy, tympanogram and acoustic reflex tests. The parameters considered were: documented persistent middle ear effusion by otoscopic examination for a minimum of 3 months; presence of B or C tympanogram; absence of ipsilateral acoustic reflex and a conductive hearing loss …
Cochlear implant users move in time to the beat of drum music.
2015
Cochlear implant users show a profile of residual, yet poorly understood, musical abilities. An ability that has received little to no attention in this population is entrainment to a musical beat. We show for the first time that a heterogeneous group of cochlear implant users is able to find the beat and move their bodies in time to Latin Merengue music, especially when the music is presented in unpitched drum tones. These findings not only reveal a hidden capacity for feeling musical rhythm through the body in the deaf and hearing impaired population, but illuminate promising avenues for designing early childhood musical training that can engage implanted children in social musical activi…
Combined Effect of Sauna Bathing and Cardiorespiratory Fitness on the Risk of Sudden Cardiac Deaths in Caucasian Men: A Long-term Prospective Cohort …
2018
Both cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) and frequency of sauna bathing (FSB) are each strongly and independently associated with sudden cardiac death (SCD) risk. However, the combined effect of CRF and FSB on SCD risk has not been previously investigated. We evaluated the joint impact of CRF and FSB on the risk of SCD in the Kuopio Ischemic Heart Disease prospective cohort study of 2291 men aged 42-61 years at recruitment. Objectively measured CRF and self-reported sauna bathing habits were assessed at baseline. CRF was categorized as low and high (median cutoffs) and FSB as low and high (defined as ≤2 and 3-7 sessions/week respectively). Multivariable adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) with confide…
Cardiovascular responses to dynamic and static upper-body exercise in a cold environment in coronary artery disease patients
2021
Abstract Purpose Upper-body exercise performed in a cold environment may increase cardiovascular strain, which could be detrimental to patients with coronary artery disease (CAD). This study compared cardiovascular responses of CAD patients during graded upper-body dynamic and static exercise in cold and neutral environments. Methods 20 patients with stable CAD performed 30 min of progressive dynamic (light, moderate, and heavy rating of perceived exertion) and static (10, 15, 20, 25 and 30% of maximal voluntary contraction) upper body exercise in cold (− 15 °C) and neutral (+ 22 °C) environments. Heart rate (HR), blood pressure (BP) and electrocardiographic (ECG) responses were recorded an…
Auditory cortex reflects goal-directed movement but is not necessary for behavioral adaptation in sound-cued reward tracking
2020
Mounting evidence suggests that the role of sensory cortices in perceptual decision making goes beyond the mere representation of the discriminative stimuli and additionally involves the representation of nonsensory variables such as reward expectation. However, the relevance of these representations for behavior is not clear. To address this issue, we trained rats to discriminate sounds in a single-interval forced-choice task and then confronted the animals with unsignaled blockwise changes of reward probabilities. We found that unequal reward probabilities for the two choice options led to substantial shifts in response bias without concomitant reduction in stimulus discrimination. Althou…
The reliability of continuous brain responses during naturalistic listening to music
2015
Low-level (timbral) and high-level (tonal and rhythmical) musical features during continuous listening to music, studied by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), have been shown to elicit large-scale responses in cognitive, motor, and limbic brain networks. Using a similar methodological approach and a similar group of participants, we aimed to study the replicability of previous findings. Participants' fMRI responses during continuous listening of a tango Nuevo piece were correlated voxelwise against the time series of a set of perceptually validated musical features computationally extracted from the music. The replicability of previous results and the present study was assessed b…
The chronnectome of musical beat
2020
Keeping time is fundamental for our everyday existence. Various isochronous activities, such as locomotion, require us to use internal timekeeping. This phenomenon comes into play also in other human pursuits such as dance and music. When listening to music, we spontaneously perceive and predict its beat. The process of beat perception comprises both beat inference and beat maintenance, their relative importance depending on the salience of beat in the music. To study functional connectivity associated with these processes in a naturalistic situation, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging to measure brain responses of participants while they were listening to a piece of music contai…
Quality standards for the management of bronchiectasis in Italy: A national audit
2016
Although historically considered a neglected disease, bronchiectasis has become a disease of renewed interest over recent decades in light of an increase in prevalence and a substantial burden on healthcare systems. In 2010, the British Thoracic Society (BTS) published guidelines on the management of bronchiectasis in adults, along with specific quality standards. To date, these represent the only quality standards available in Europe. These have been tested over a number of years in the UK with progressive improvements in the standard of care. No national guidelines are available in Italy and no indications on which guideline should be followed have been given by the Italian Society of Res…