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Introduction: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a kind of developmental disorders that would present problems in communication, social interaction and behavior. Recently more and more children with ASD are receiving cochlear implants. Here we report listening skills and communication abilities in children with ASD who underwent cochlear implantation. Method: Totally 23 ASD patients who received cochlear implants in our hospital, were included in this study. All children were diagnosed as ASD either before or after cochlear implantation. The patients were divided into two groups according to the severity of their ASDs: five severely disabled patients as group A, and 18 mildly impaired patients as group B. MAIS and MUSS were used to assess listening and speech skills, respectively. Reports from the parents and the teachers were also taken into account to assess the communication mode in daily life. Results: The mean age at implantation and the mean fitting period of cochlear implant were not significantly different between the two groups. 15 of 18 children in group B were able to communicate with spoken language, including cases in combination with sign or written language, while no children in group A were able to communicate with spoken language. However, all children in group A were able to notice and distinguish some sound in their daily lives, for example, birdsong, music, or bell ring at the school. The scores of MAIS and MUSS were lower in group A than those in group B. However, postoperative scores were better than preoperative scores in all children of group A. Conclusion: Early intervention and appropriate care would reduce difficulties in children with ASD, by helping them improve communication abilities and learning new skills. 171 These results suggest that cochlear implantation is an effective intervention for children who both have ASD and congenital profound hearing loss. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Autism spectrum disorder(ASD) is the name for a group of developmental disability that can cause significant communication, social, and behavioral challenges. Recently the number of pediatric cochlear implant candidates and recipients who have a diagnosis of ASD is increasing. We report about listening skills and communication abilities in children with ASD receiving cochlear implantation. Patients & Method: 23 children, 16 boys and 7 girls, who received cochlear implants at our hospital between 1993 and 2013. The mean age at implantation were 43.6 months. (SD=31.0) All children were diagnosed as having ASD, either before or after receiving a cochlear implant. Divided them into two groups, 5 children are severely disabled by their symptoms (Group A), other 18 children are mildly impaired (Group B). Meaningful Auditory Integration Scale(MAIS) and Meaningful Use of Speech Scale(MUSS) were used to assess listening skills and speech skills. Reports of parents and teachers were also used to consider mode of communication that children use in daily life. Results: 65% of children were able to communicate using speech, including cases that using sign language or writing in combination with. Children in group A were unable to communicate with speech. However, all 5 children were able to recognize or understand some sound in their daily lives, like birdsong, music, or bell ring at the school. Comparison of two groups with the scores of MAIS and MUSS, the scores of group A were low than that of group B, however, when compared with themselves preoperatively, these children did obviously improve. Conclusion: Early treatment for ASD and proper care can reduce individuals' difficulties while helping them improve communication abilities and learn new skills. These results suggest cochlear implantation is an effective intervention for children accompanied with both ASD and congenital profound hearing loss. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Thyroid cancer is the most common endocrine malignant disease, but preoperative diagnosis remains a challenge. Fine-needle aspiration cytology has greatly improved the clinical management of thyroid nodules, but the preoperative characterisation of follicular lesions is very difficult. Many patients are thus referred to surgery more for diagnosis than for therapeutic necessity. We undertook an international multicentre study to assess the usefulness of immunohistocytochemical staining for two potential markers of malignant thyrocytes.Methods: Expression of galectin-3 and CD44v6 was tested on 1009 thyroid lesions (tissue specimens and cytological cell-blocks) and 226 fresh cytological samples obtained preoperatively by ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration of thyroid nodules (prospective analysis). The test used monoclonal antibodies specific for CD44v6 and galectin-3, the indirect avidin-biotin complex immunoperoxidase method, and 3-amino-9-ethyl-carbazole as substrate.Findings: The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and diagnostic accuracy of this test method (for coexpression of the two markers) in the prospective analysis were 88%, 98%, 91%, and 97%, respectively. The sensitivity and specificity of galectin-3 immunodetection alone in discriminating benign from malignant thyroid lesions were more than 99% and 98% respectively, and the positive predictive value and diagnostic accuracy were 92% and 99%.Interpretation: The integration of galectin-3 immunostaining with conventional cytomorphological and clinical diagnostic procedures represents a sensitive and reliable diagnostic approach for preoperative identification of thyroid carcinomas. This test method improves the diagnostic accuracy of conventional cytology and provides the molecular basis for a new nosological assignation of the not yet classified thyroid neoplasms of indeterminate malignant behaviour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Polyploidy is frequently enhanced under pathological conditions, such as tissue injury and cancer in humans. Polyploidization is critically involved in cancer evolution, including cancer initiation and the acquisition of drug resistance. However, the effect of polyploidy on cell fate remains unclear. In this study, we explored the effects of polyploidization on cellular responses to DNA damage and cell cycle progression. Through various comparisons based on ploidy stratifications of cultured cells, we found that polyploidization and the accumulation of genomic DNA damage mutually induce each other, resulting in polyploid cells consistently containing more genomic DNA damage than diploid cells under both physiological and stress conditions. Notably, despite substantial DNA damage, polyploid cells demonstrated a higher tolerance to its impact, exhibiting delayed cell cycle arrest and reduced secretion of inflammatory cytokines associated with DNA damage-induced senescence. Consistently, in mice with ploidy tracing, hepatocytes with high ploidy appeared to potentially persist in the damaged liver, while being susceptible to DNA damage. Polyploidy acts as a reservoir of genomic damage by mitigating the impact of DNA damage, while simultaneously enhancing its accumulation., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Although research on hearing loss, including the identification of causative genes, has become increasingly active, the pathogenic mechanism of hearing loss remains unclear. One of the reasons for this is that the structure of the inner ear of mice, which is commonly used as a genetically modified animal model, is too small and complex, making it difficult to accurately capture abnormalities and dynamic changes in vivo. Especially, Reissner's membrane is a very important structure that separates the perilymph and endolymph of the inner ear. This malformation or damage induces abnormalities in hearing and balance. Until now, imaging analyses, such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and computed tomography, are performed to investigate the inner ear structure in vivo; however, it has been difficult to analyze the small inner ear structure of mice owing to resolution. Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop an image analysis method that can accurately capture the structure of the inner ear of mice including Reissner's membrane, both dynamically and statically. This study aimed to investigate whether it is possible to accurately capture the structure (e.g., Reissner's membrane) and abnormalities of the inner ear of mice using an 11.7 T MRI. By combining two types of MRI methods, in vivo and ex vivo, we succeeded for the first time in capturing the fine structure of the normal mouse inner ear, such as the Reissner's membrane, and inflammatory lesions of otitis media mouse models in detail and accurately. In the future, we believe that understanding the state of Reissner's membrane during living conditions will greatly contribute to the development of research on inner ear issues, such as hearing loss., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors report no conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Objectives/hypothesis: To determine the presence of sex differences in difficult laryngeal exposure and the Laryngoscore, validate the Laryngoscore, mini-Laryngoscore, and Clarysse's model for predicting difficult laryngeal exposure, and modify the Laryngoscore for improved prediction accuracy., Study Design: Retrospective study., Methods: This study included 153 patients who underwent laryngeal microsurgery at a tertiary laryngology center and university hospital. Patients were evaluated using the 11 items of the Laryngoscore, mini-Laryngoscore, and Clarysse's model to predict difficult laryngeal exposure. Difficult laryngeal exposure was defined as the inability to view the anterior commissure through a rigid laryngoscope under counterpressure to the anterior neck. Descriptive statistics and receiver-operating characteristic curve analysis were used to assess the diagnostic performance of the predictive models and variables, including sex., Results: The prevalence of difficult laryngeal exposure was significantly higher in men than in women, despite higher Laryngoscore values in females. The Laryngoscore, mini-Laryngoscore, and Clarysse's model demonstrated good diagnostic performance with C-indexes of 0.751, 0.727, and 0.783, respectively. Based on these findings, we proposed a modified Laryngoscore, including treatment history, interincisors gap, upper jaw dental status, thyro-mental distance, degree of neck flexion-extension, and sex, achieving a C-index of 0.835., Conclusions: Inclusion of sex in the Laryngoscore and related predictive models enhances the accuracy of predicting difficult laryngeal exposure. These findings support the inclusion of sex as a factor in future modifications of these models to improve their predictive performance., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 The Voice Foundation. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)