Search

Objectives. When performing middle ear operations, such as ossiculoplasty or stapes surgery, patients and surgeons expect an improvement in air conduction (AC) hearing, but generally not in bone conduction (BC). However, BC improvement has often been observed after surgery, and the present study investigated this phenomenon.Methods. We reviewed the preoperative and postoperative surgical outcomes of 583 patients who underwent middle ear surgery. BC improvement was defined as a BC threshold decrease of >15 dB at two or more frequencies. Subjects in group A underwent staged ossiculoplasty after canal wall up mastoidectomy (CWUM), group B underwent staged ossiculoplasty after canal wall down mastoidectomy (CWDM), group C underwent ossiculoplasty only (thus, they had no prior history of CWUM or CWDM), and group D received stapes surgery. We created a hypothetical circuit model to explain this phenomenon.Results. BC improvement was detected in 12.8% of group A, 9.1% of group B, and 8.5% of group C. The improvement was more pronounced in group D (27.0%). A larger gain in AC hearing was weakly correlated with greater BC improvement (Pearson’s r=0.395 in group A, P

Purpose Intermittent hypoxia (IH) is characterized by hypoxia-reoxygenation, reported to be a critical risk factor for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). This experiment aimed to evaluate the direct effects of IH on the human nasal mucosa. Methods The direct effects of IH on the human nasal mucosa was evaluated by measuring the ciliary beat frequency (CBF) and expression levels of inflammatory cytokines (granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor, transforming growth factor-β, interleukin-6, and tumor necrosis factor-α). The normoxia group was exposed to a normoxic condition for 72 h. The IH group was exposed to 288 cycles of IH (1 cycle: hypoxia, 5 min; subsequent normoxia, 10 min) for 72 h. CBF was measured using an automated computer-based video image processing technique. Changes in the expression of cytokines were assessed by real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Results The normoxia group revealed a persistent CBF pattern and a physiological range of inflammatory cytokines. However, the IH group showed a cyclic decrease in CBF and increased expression of inflammatory cytokines. Cytotoxicity assay indicated no difference in the survival rates between the two groups. Conclusions IH results in increased expression of inflammatory cytokines that adversely affects the mucociliary transport in the upper airway and, consequently, may result in airway inflammation.

Positive airway pressure (PAP) devices have been widely used as the first line of treatment in obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). Most advanced PAP devices support the estimation of respiratory index (RI) using the patient’s mask airflow. In addition to the compliance factor for PAP device use, which is important for monitoring patient sleep health, RI is also becoming important for monitoring. However, there are few reports that validate RI of a PAP device with polysomnography. Between January 2015 and December 2017, 50 participants were enrolled who were diagnosed with OSA and prescribed auto-titration PAP (APAP) devices. The RIs of participants were measured at night using APAP devices, concurrently with electroencephalography, respiratory inductance plethysmography sensors, and other polysomnographic sensors in a sleep laboratory. The respiratory-related data of APAP were prospectively analyzed with the manually scored polysomnographic data. The apnea-hypopnea index and apnea index showed a statistically close relationship between the auto-scored respiratory data from the APAP device and the manually scored respiratory data from polysomnographic sensors. Obstructive apnea and central apnea indices showed relatively low correlations. The differences between the auto-scored RI and manually scored RI were influenced by BMI, waist circumference, weight, oxygen saturation, and respiratory distress indices of diagnostic polysomnographic factors. The RIs of APAP devices have a tendency to be underestimated or mismatched when compared with polysomnography. Sleep specialists are advised to consider additional anthropometric and diagnostic factors to account for these differences during PAP treatment.