1,720,965 research outputs found
Role of ossiculoplasty in canal wall down tympanoplasty for middle-ear cholesteatoma: hearing results
No full textThe aim of this study was to evaluate the hearing results of ossiculoplasty in canal wall down tympanoplasty in one stage middle-ear cholesteatoma surgery. We carried out a retrospective review of a consecutive series of 142 cases which had undergone type two or three canal wall down tympanoplasty with ossicular reconstruction, between January 1995 and December 2002, due to chronic otitis media with cholesteatoma.Pre-operative audiometric testing revealed a mean air conduction pure tone average (PTA) of 50.97 dB and a mean bone conduction PTA of 22.14 dB. The mean post-operative result for air conduction PTA was 37.62 and for bone conduction PTA was 23.37 dB. The mean pre- and post-operative air-bone gaps (ABGs) were 28.83 and 13.94 dB, respectively, with a gain of 14.89 dB. Almost 62.67 per cent of patients closed their ABGs to within 20 dB. Our functional results are comparable with those of other authors. In the present study, we show that hearing improvement is possible following cholesteatoma surgery with canal wall down tympanoplasty and ossicular chain reconstruction
Predictive role of audiological and clinical features for functional results after stapedotomy
No full textOBJECTIVE:
To analyze and compare the preoperative factors that potentially influence the outcome of stapedotomy in our study group.
MATERIALS AND METHODS:
161 cases were enrolled. Clinical variables considered to influence functional results - air conduction (AC) and bone conduction (BC) pure-tone average (PTA), air-bone gaps (ABG), sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL), ABG gain and DeltaSNHL - were gender, age, case type (unilateral vs. bilateral), ear side (right vs. left), pregnancy, vascular disease and family history of otosclerosis. The audiometric variables were preoperative AC- and BC-PTA, SNHL and ABG.
RESULTS:
Univariate logistic regression analysis showed that the probability of obtaining a > or =10 dB gain is significantly affected by the following factors: age or =50 dB and preoperative ABG > or =30 dB. All the other factors included into the registration (gender, familiarity, side, bilateral vs. unilateral, pregnancy, vascular diseases and preoperative BC-PTA) were not found to significantly affect postoperative gain (p > 0.05). Nevertheless, multivariate logistic regression analysis maintained a statistically significant correlation only between gain > or =10 dB and both preoperative ABG > or =30 dB and age <50 years.
CONCLUSIONS:
The accurate knowledge of predictive factors is a valuable tool that permits the surgeon to plan surgery with a better case selection as well as assisting in counseling the patient with regard to the likelihood of success of the procedure
Role of early voice therapy in patients affected by unilateral vocal fold paralysis
No full textOBJECTIVE:
To evaluate the functional results obtained after voice therapy in patients with unilateral vocal fold paralysis caused by different aetiologies.
DESIGN:
Prospective analysis of the outcome of unilateral vocal fold paralysis cases treated at our speech and language rehabilitation service from November 2003 to January 2006. Thirty cases underwent behavioural treatment, between two and six weeks after unilateral vocal fold paralysis onset. A multi-dimensional assessment was carried out before, immediately after and six months after treatment.
RESULTS:
After behavioural therapy, the prevalence of complete glottal closure increased significantly (p < 0.05). Subjects' pre-therapy mean values for jitter, shimmer and noise-to-harmonic ratio were statistically significantly different from those taken both immediately and six months after treatment (p < 0.05). The mean values for voice turbulence index significantly improved only six months after therapy (0.08 vs 0.04). At both post-treatment assessments, voice range profile analysis showed a significant decrease of lowest voice frequency and a significant increase of the number of semitones (p < 0.05). Mean values for grade, instability, breathiness, asthenia and voice handicap index scores were significantly decreased both immediately and six months after treatment, compared with pre-treatment values (p < 0.05).
CONCLUSIONS:
Early voice therapy may enable significant improvement in vocal function, allowing the patient to avoid surgery
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Voice and swallowing changes after thyroidectomy in patients without inferior laryngeal nerve injuries
No full textBACKGROUND:
We performed a prospective analysis on voice and swallowing alterations following total thyroidectomy (TT), in the absence of recurrent nerve injury.
METHODS:
Patients aged 21 to 65 years undergoing TT, in the absence of laryngeal/pulmonary disease, previous neck surgery, or malignant diseases, were subjected to videostrobolaryngoscopy (VSL), acoustic voice analysis (AVA), and maximum phonation time (MPT) tests preoperatively and 3 months postoperatively. Voice impairment scores (VIS) and swallowing impairment scores (SIS) were obtained preoperatively, and at 1 week, 1 month, and 3 months postoperatively.
RESULTS:
Among the 127 selected patients, 39 completed the postoperative evaluation. No recurrent nerve injury was observed during the postoperative VSL in any of the patients. Preoperative and postoperative AVA and MPT scores did not differ significantly. The mean postoperative VIS was significantly higher than the preoperative VIS at 1 week and 1 month after TT (13.7 and 9.6 vs 4.4, respectively; P < .05) but not 3 months after TT (6.7). The mean SIS was higher than the preoperative SIS at 1 week, 1 month, and 3 months after TT (10.3, 6.0, and 2.8 vs 0.5, respectively; P < .05).
CONCLUSIONS:
Physicians should inform patients that transient voice and swallowing symptoms may occur following total thyroidectomy, and our data suggest mild symptoms may occur in the majority of operated patients
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
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