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Objective: The aim of this study was to compare the basic characters of the speech-evoked auditory brainstem response (speech-ABR) between young adults and school-age children., Methods: Speech-ABR of thirty eight normal hearing subjects including eighteen school-age children and twenty young adults were recorded. The speech syllable/da/as stimulus sound was transmitted to right ear by insertion the earphones in speech-ABR test., Results: Response waves of speech-ABR in school-age children were similar to those in young adults, which contained the onset response (peak V and A), the transition (peak C), the frequency following responses (peak D, E and F) and the offset response (peak O). Both the latency and amplitude showed no significant difference in all waves between young adults and school-age children, except the latency of wave O and amplitude of wave F. The latency of O wave in school-age children (47.80 ± 0.38) ms were significantly shorter than that in adults (48.10 ± 0.40) ms (t = 2.330,P = 0.026). The amplitude of F wave in school-age children (-0.21 ± 0.15) µV were significantly larger than that in adults (-0.12 ± 0.08) µV (t = 2.146,P = 0.043)., Conclusion: Both the latency and amplitude of the speech ABR in school age children at 6 - 11 years old show the great similarity with the young adults, which indicate that the ability of speech processing of brainstem in children has completely reached maturity.

Objective: To assess the accuracy of a wrist-worn device (Watch-PAT 200) in the diagnosis of obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAHS)., Methods: Forty-three adult subjects with suspected OSAHS simultaneously had a standard in-laboratory polysomnogram (PSG) and wore the Watch-PAT 200 during a full-night recording. PSG sleep and respiratory events were scored according to standard criteria. The PSG recordings were blindly manually analyzed, while Watch-PAT data were scored automatically based on the algorithm developed previously., Results: The mean age of the subjects was (42.2 ± 12.2) years (x(-) ± s), and mean body mass index was (28.0 ± 3.9) kg/m(2). Mean PSG apnea hypopnea index (AHI) was (34.9 ± 29.9) events per hour, and mean PAT-AHI was (36.0 ± 29.2) events per hour. There was a significant correlation between PAT AHI and AHI by PSG (r = 0.931, P < 0.01). A Bland-Altman plot of PAT AHI and PSG AHI was also used to assess the accuracy of Watch-PAT 200. At lower levels of AHI, PAT tended to overestimate disease severity, while at higher levels of AHI, Watch-PAT underestimated severity. To assess sensitivity and specificity of Watch-PAT, constructed receiver operator characteristic curves using a variety of AHI threshold values (5, 15 and 30 events per hour). For AHI ≥ 5 events per hour as threshold value, the Watch-PAT diagnosing rate was 93%, and sensitivity as well as specificity were 94.7% and 80.0%. The misdiagnosis rate and missed diagnosis rate were 20.0% and 5.3%. Optimal combinations of sensitivity and specificity for the AHI threshold values (15 and 30 events per hour) were 82.6% and 100.0%, 95.0% and 95.7% respectively., Conclusion: The Watch-PAT 200 may offer an accurate, robust, and reliable ambulatory method for the detection of OSAHS, with minimal patient discomfort.

Objective: To investigate the effective way to test 4-year-old children's ability of sound localization in the horizontal plane., Methods: Using minimum audible angle (MAA) measure procedure on the basis of conditioned play audiometry, sound localization test was conducted for 4-year-old children at 0 degrees , +/- 45 degrees , +/- 90 degrees , +/- 135 degrees and 180 degrees standard positions in the horizontal plane., Results: The outcome of sound localization test for 4-year-old children separately were: MAA (0 degrees ) = (3.80 +/- 0.71) degrees , MAA (-45 degrees ) = (7.70 +/- 1.27) degrees , MAA (45 degrees ) = (7.10 +/- 1.39) degrees , MAA (-90 degrees ) = (8.15 +/- 2.38) degrees , MAA (90 degrees ) = (7.61 +/- 2.47) degrees , MAA (-135 degrees ) = (8.85 +/- 2.70) degrees , MAA (135 degrees ) = (8.30 +/- 1.42) degrees , MAA (180 degrees ) = (5.20 +/- 1.27) degrees . The MAA of eight standard positions were less than 10 degrees , and the MAA (0 degrees ) was the smallest one., Conclusions: Our findings suggest that MAA test procedure on the basis of conditioned play audiometry could be used to evaluate the ability of sound localization in 4-year-old children.

Objective: To work out the elicitation plan, obtain the mismatch negativity (MMN) and get out the laboratory normal value as well as to study the influence to MMN from the deviation of auditory stimuli., Methods: Hearing test of the tone burst stimulation was performed on 21 healthy young volunteers according to oddball stimulation sequence. Each subject was performed two kinds of auditory stimuli including frequency deviant stimuli and intensity deviant stimuli, and of each one included three series of stimulation. MMN was gained by subtracting the ERP of deviant stimuli from the ERP of standard stimuli. The latency and amplitude of each MMN were recorded, and then the effect of the deviant extent for MMN was analyzed., Results: By this setup the MMN of normal young people was recorded and normal value of latency and amplitude of MMN were got. In the group of frequency deviant stimuli, the MMN latency [(155.81 +/- 29.08) ms], if the frequency was up to 2000 Hz, was shorter than that when the frequency deviance was 1000 Hz [(182.89 +/- 45.85) ms, (183.32 +/- 43.33) ms] (P = 0.033, 0.030); when the deviant extent were the same, the latency had no obvious difference if changing the frequency of the standard and deviant stimuli (P = 0.973); the MMN amplitude of three groups [(3.85 +/- 2.22) microV, (2.90 +/- 2.05) microV, (2.66 +/- 2.12) microV] had no obvious difference among them (P > 0.05). In the group of intensity deviant stimuli, the MMN latency [(157.04 +/- 34.87) ms], if the frequency was up to 20 dB, was shorter (P = 0.025, 0.017) than that when the intensity deviance was 10 dB [(184.46 +/- 38.05) ms, (186.24 +/- 42.36) ms]. When the deviant extent were the same, the latency had no obvious difference (P = 0.882) if changing the intensity of the standard and deviant stimuli but only group 4 and group 6 [(3.41 +/- 1.64) microV, (2.37 +/- 1.47) microV] were different in evidence (P = 0.031) while the others had no obvious difference (P = 0.524, 0.122)., Conclusions: MMN was only related to the difference between standard stimuli and deviant stimuli, but there was no relationship between MMN and the notice, which indicate that MMN could objectively reflect the capability of brain to detect the change of stimuli. MMN is the representation of brain high-level sensory function.

To investigate the relationship between the methylation status of imprinted gene H19 and the development of mice derived completely from Embryonic stem cells (ES) by tetraploid embryo complementation. The methylation status of two loci at 5'UTR region in imprinted gene H19 in normal adult control mice, 22 adult ES mice, 8 newborn dead ES mice and embryonic stem (ES) cells with different passage number were detected by using of methylation-sensitive restriction endonuclease-PCR technique. The results indicated that the methylation status of the imprinted gene H19 in adult ES mice were identical to that of adult control mice. However, some significant differences in the methylation status of the imprinted gene H19 were found among newborn dead ES mice, adult ES mice and normal adult control mice. Furthermore, the methylation status of the imprinted gene H19 in ES cells were probably different from that of adult ES mice and normal adult control mice.

Objective: To investigate the association of male infertility with single nucleotide polymorphisms of the autosomal DAZL gene., Methods: Semen samples were collected from infertile men (infertility group, n=144) and healthy fathers (fertility group, n=53) in the northeast of China, and the former was further divided into 5 subgroups according to the WHO diagnostic criteria for oligoasthenoteratozoospermia (1999) i.e., oligoasthenoteratozoospermia, oligoasthenozoospermia, asthenoteratozoospermia, asthenozoospermia and non-oligoasthenoteratozoospermia. PCR-RFLP analysis was used to detect the polymorphism of SNP260. The SNP386 polymorphism of the DAZL gene was analysed with a PCR-SSCP based method. Sequencing and statistical analyses were performed., Results: The SNP260 polymorphism of the DAZL gene was found in both the infertility and the control groups, with no significant difference in between (P > 0.05). There was a larger percentage of SNP260AG in the subgroup of oligoasthenoteratozoospermia than in others, and the SNP386 polymorphism of the DAZL gene was not found in any of the subgroups., Conclusion: The SNP260 and SNP386 polymorphisms of the DAZL gene are not associated with male infertility in the northeast of China. Further research needs to be done to clarify the association between SNP260AG and oligoasthenoteratozoospermia. SNP386 polymorphism may be restricted in some small area in Taiwan only. Therefore neither of them can be used as a molecular marker for the genetic diagnosis of male infertility in the northeast of China.

Objective: To improve the precision of the traditional segmentation of echocardiogram, by suppressing the influence from inherent speckle noises in medical ultrasonic images., Method: An automatic segmentation method based on reconstructed morphology was proposed in this paper. First, the opening and closing operations by reconstruction were imposed to the ultrasonic image. Second, the top-hat operation was used to extract the bright and/or dark features and to find out the boundaries corresponding to these features, whereby implemented the automatic segmentation., Result: The segmented echocardiogram had less artificial boundaries resulted from speckle noise, and could accurately be extracted the artery and ventricle., Conclusion: The presented method can detect both dark and bright objects accurately, and the boundary has a fine continuity. In addition, the algorithm is also applicable to the extraction of sole bright/dark features, accordingly to reduce the complexity and time needed and to improve the accuracy.