Analysis of rehabilitation effects of cochlear implantation in elderly patients with prelingual deafness / 临床耳鼻咽喉头颈外科杂志

Objective:The auditory and speech rehabilitation effects were assessed by the Categories of Auditory Performance（CAP） and the speech intelligibility rating scale（SIR） after cochlear implantation（CI） in prelingually elderly patients by telephone follow-up or face-to-face conversation. Methods:The clinical data of the prelingually deaf patients who underwent unilateral CI in the Department of Otorhinolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery, Shanxi People's Hospital, from December 2016 to December 2021 were collected. Thirty-eight patients were divided into Group A（SIR 1, 17 cases）, Group B（SIR 2, 10 cases） and Group C（SIR 3, 11 cases） according to the preoperative SIR Score. Nineteen patients with post-lingual hearing impairment were selected as the control group（Group D, 19 cases）. The effects of hearing and speech rehabilitation were evaluated using CAP and SIR Scores before surgery, 6 months after startup, and 1 year after startup. Results:There were no significant differences in CAP scores among the three groups of patients with prelingually deaf patients at 6 months and 1 year after startup（P>0.05）, but there were significant differences between group A and group D at 6 months and 1 year after startup（P<0.05）; the SIR Score of group A had statistical difference before surgery and 6 months after startup（P<0.05）, group B had statistical difference before surgery and 1 year after startup（P<0.05）, and group C and D had no statistical difference before surgery and 6 months and 1 year after startup, respectively（P>0.05）. Conclusion:For the prelingually deaf elderly patients, hearing will develop rapidly 6 months after startup, and the effect of postoperative auditory rehabilitation was positively correlated with the preoperative speech ability. In the aspect of speech, the prelingually dear elderly patients who have poor preoperative speech ability could benefit more from CI early after surgery. CI is not contraindicated in prelingually deaf elderly patients, even those with poor preoperative speech function.

Determination of eotaxin, tumor necrosis factor-α and interferon-γ levels in plasma from patients with chronic urticaria treated with the combination of BCG-PSN and cetirizine / 中华皮肤科杂志

Objective To investigate the changes to eotaxin,tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) and interferon-γ (IFN-γ) in plasma from patients with chronic urticaria treated with the combination of polysaccharide nucleic acid fraction of bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG-PSN) and cetirizine.Methods Totally,123 patients with chronic urticaria were enrolled into this study,and classified into two groups:the combination therapy group (n =60) treated with intramuscular BCG-PSN 2 ml every other day and oral cetirizine 10 mg once daily,and the monotherapy group (n =63) treated with oral cetirizine 10 mg once daily alone.The treatment lasted 54 days.Clinical efficacy was evaluated.Venous blood samples were collected from the patients before and after the treatment,as well as from 56 healthy controls.Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was performed to quantify the plasma levels of eotaxin,TNF-α and IFN-γ.Results At the end of the treatment,the total response rate was significantly higher in the combination therapy group than in the monotherapy group (88.3％ vs.63.4％,P ＜ 0.05).Before the treatment,no significant differences were observed in the plasma levels of eotaxin,TNF-α or IFN-γ between the two treatment groups,whereas the patients showed higher plasma levels of eotaxin and TNF-α but lower plasma level of IFN-γ compared with the healthy controls (all P ＜ 0.5).Both the combination therapy and monotherapy resulted in a statistical decrease in plasma eotaxin and TNF-α but an increase in plasma IFN-γ (all P ＞ 0.05),and the absolute values of changes in the three parameters were significantly higher in the combination therapy group than in the monotherapy group (eotaxin:(13.27 ± 4.11) μg/L vs.(8.12 ± 2.58) μg/L,t =8.3654,P ＜ 0.05; TNF-α:(12.38 ± 3.95) ng/L vs.(10.32 ± 3.41) ng/L,t =3.1005,P ＜ 0.05; IFN-γ:(17.06 ± 5.24) μg/L vs.(12.54 ± 4.07) μg/L,t =5.3573,P ＜ 0.05).Further more,the differences between the patients and healthy controls in the three parameters disappeared at the end of the treatment (all P ＞ 0.05).Conclusion BCG-PSN combined with cetirizine seems superior to cetirizine alone for the treatment of chronic urticaria.