Aspectos epidemiológicos del trauma acústico en personal expuesto a ruido intenso / Epidemiological aspects of acoustic trauma found in the staff exposed to intensive noise

Introducción: el trauma acústico, ligado a las enfermedades profesionales, comenzó a estudiarse con profundidad a raíz de la segunda guerra mundial, y por los alarmantes resultados se implantaron una serie de medidas de prevención para evitar esta agresión. No obstante, estas no fueron eficaces debido a la falta de educación y de concientización del personal al cual iban dirigidas. Objetivos: determinar las manifestaciones auditivas en pacientes expuestos a ruidos intensos, teniendo en cuenta la edad, el sexo y el tiempo de exposición, y tomando como base los resultados audiométricos. Métodos: se realizó una encuesta epidemiológica a un grupo de 50 casos expuestos a ruidos intensos, en el período comprendido de enero de 2007 a enero de 2008. La muestra estuvo compuesta por pacientes entre los 20 y 55 años, en los cuales la manifestación auditiva más frecuente fue la hipoacusia. Resultados: en los resultados audiométricos se observó que la gran mayoría de los casos presentó una hipoacusia de tipo neurosensorial, con predominio del sexo masculino. Conclusiones: el sexo masculino fue el más afectado y la edad de 41 a 55 años, además, la intensidad de la hipoacusia fue mayor en correspondencia con el tiempo de exposición más prolongado(AU)

Introduction: acoustic trauma is linked to professional diseases and began to be studied in depth after the Second World War. Due to the alarming results obtained, a number of preventive measures to avoid this aggression were implemented; however, they were not effective because of the lack of education and awareness of the staff to which they were directed. Objectives: to find out the auditory manifestations in patients exposed to intensive noise, taking age, sex, time of exposure and the audiometric results into consideration. Methods: an epidemiological survey was carried out in a group of 50 cases exposed to intensive noises from January 2007 to January, 2008. The sample was made up of 20-55 years-old patients and the most common auditory manifestation was hypoacusis. Results: the audiometric results showed that most of patients presented with neurosensory hypoacusis, being the males predominant. Conclusions: males were the most affected along with the 41-55 years-old age group; the hypoacusis intensity increased as the time of exposure was longer(AU)

Impairment of spatial performance by continuous intensive noise: a behavioral view

A wide range of animal and human investigations have tested the neurobiological and immunological aspects of noise. Few studies, however, have explored the behavioral characteristics of noise on neuromotor movements. To examine this correlation, we tested the effects of continuous intensive noise on retention and contextual transfer in a spatial memory task in adult male rats. The natural noise was recorded in a football stadium and set at high (HI), moderate (MI), and low (LI) intensities, levels corresponding to 86-90, 64-68, and 52-54 A-weighted decibels (dbA), respectively. Rats were trained in a Morris water maze for 3 consecutive days. On day 4, visible and probe tests were conducted under the same intensities. Retention was evaluated on day 7 with high-intensity noise exposure. The contextual transfer test was held on day 8 after exposure to 30-min high-intensity noise. The escape latency and distance traveled were recorded and used for subsequent analyses. Our results showed significant increases in latency and distance traveled, attributable to increasing the noise intensity during the acquisition period. Additionally, performance in the LI group was significantly impaired in the retention test at the high intensity. In the contextual transfer test, results showed no significant increase except in the LI group, whereas a higher latency and distance traveled were found in the HI group. High-intensity noise appeared to damage the learning process. However, because the most robust results were found in the MI group, training with moderate-intensity noise can promote better performance under continuous high-intensity noise.