CHRONIC KIDNEY DISEASE LINKED TO HEARING LOSS
A new study published in the October issue of the American Journal of Kidney Diseases indicates that older people with moderate chronic kidney disease are more likely than others their age to develop hearing loss.
Australian researchers studied more than 2,900 people over age 50. Within the sample, 513 study participants had moderate chronic kidney disease. Fifty-four percent of those with moderate chronic kidney disease reported having hearing loss, versus only 28 percent of the other participants without kidney disease. Additionally, tests showed that 30 percent of kidney disease patients had severe hearing loss, compared with 10 percent of the others.
The study suggests a strong connection between chronic kidney disease and hearing loss. "The link can be explained by structural and functional similarities between tissues in the inner ear and in the kidney," says study author David Harris, the associate dean of Sydney Medical School-Westmead at the University of Sydney. He added that toxins that accumulate in kidney failure can damage nerves, including those in the inner ear, and that kidney disease and hearing loss share common risk factors, including diabetes, high blood pressure, and advanced age.
People with chronic kidney disease should get their hearing tested early on. Dr. Kerry Willis of the National Kidney Foundation says this can help preserve hearing function.
MACARTHUR HONORS ITS FIRST DEAF PERSON
Last fall, Carol Padden became the first deaf person ever to receive a prestigious MacArthur Foundation grant, sometimes called the "genius grant." Padden is a professor in the department of communications at the University of California, San Diego. Her research focuses on the structure and evolution of sign languages, how they differ from spoken language, and how they differ from one another.
Padden's early research on American Sign Language clarified some misconceptions about the grammatical use of visual space. She showed, for example, how signers use points in space to refer to different subjects.
Padden is currently researching Israel's emerging Al-Sayyid Bedouin Sign Language. She and her colleagues have demonstrated that new sign languages can quickly adopt complex grammatical structures.
As a 2010 MacArthur Fellow, Padden will earn a stipend of $500,000, paid over five years. She plans to use the grant to continue her studies.
ENHANCED GPS FOR THE HEARING IMPAIRED
Global positioning system (GPS) users may soon have an alternative to spoken driving directions.
A University of Utah study is exploring the use of devices that are mounted on the steering wheel and pull skin on the driver's index fingertips left or right. The researchers hope the study will lead to new, touch-based directional devices that could be used on steering wheels for hearing-impaired people.
The technology could also be applied to special walking canes that pass directional cues to the thumbs of blind pedestrians.
"It has the potential of being a safer way of doing what's already being donedelivering information that people are already getting with in-car GPS navigation systems," says the study's lead author, William Provancher. He is an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Utah.
The National Science Foundation helped fund the research.
NEW FEDERAL LAW PROTECTS AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES
On October 8, 2010, President Barack Obama signed into law the Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act. The measure requires smartphones, TV programs, cable program guides, and Internet devices to be accessible to Americans with vision or hearing loss.
"The bill I'm signing today into law will better ensure full participation in our democracy and our economy for Americans with disabilities," Obama said at the signing ceremony in the White House.
"It sets new standards so that Americans with disabilities can take advantage of the technology our economy depends on."
DEAF CATS SEE BETTER
Deaf or blind people often report enhanced abilities in their remaining senses. Why? A new study of cats offers some clues. The research, from the University of Western Ontario, was published online in Nature Neuroscience. It reveals a causal link between enhanced visual abilities and the reorganization of the part of the brain that usually handles auditory input in congenitally deaf cats. Cats were given tests in which lights flashed at the very periphery of their normal vision.
Stephen Lomber and his team at The Centre for Brain and Mind are trying to discover how a deaf brain differs from a hearing brain to better understand how the brain handles cochlear implants. "The brain is very efficient, and doesn't let unused space go to waste," he says. "The brain wants to compensate for the lost sense with enhancements that are beneficial."
INDUCTION LOOPS AROUND THE BIG APPLE
Induction loops are taking root in New York City. So far, thanks to stimulus package funds, 54 subway stations have unveiled induction loops. The technology uses an electro-magnetic coil to create a magnetic field. Hearing aids or cochlear implants with T-coils receive the sound signal directly via their T-coil when the hearing aid is switched from the microphone to T-setting.
Induction loops have also debuted in portions of the American Museum of Natural History, the New-York Historical Society, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, El Museo del Barrio, the Lower East Side Tenement Museum, Ellis Island, and the New York Botanical Garden. They are also in use at the Apple Store in SoHo, and at portions of Yankee Stadium and Citi Field ballparks. More information can be found at www.hearingloop.org.
NEW STUDIES SOUND THE SMOKE ALARM
Need another incentive to stop smoking? Two separate new studies indicate that smokers, and those exposed to second-hand smoke, face an increased risk of
hearing loss.
One study was presented at the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association annual convention in November. "Effects of Cigarette Smoking on Distortion Product Otoacoustic Emissions in Male and Female Adult Subjects" shows that both male and female smokers are at a greater risk for inner ear/cochlear damage than nonsmokers. Regardless of the number of cigarettes smoked per day, nicotine appeared to reduce the blood supply to the smokers' cochleae, affecting hearing.
Lead author T.K. Parthasarathy and his co-authors hope their findings will help hearing healthcare professionals detect changes earlier in their smoking patients' inner ear/cochlear function.
The other study, published in the journal Tobacco Control, is titled "Secondhand Smoke Exposure and the Risk of Hearing Loss." Starkey Laboratories' David Fabry and his co-authors found that secondhand smoke exposure is associated with hearing loss in nonsmoking adults. Nonsmoking participants, ages 20 to 69, completed audiometric testing, had a valid serum continue value, and provided complete smoking, medical co-morbidity, and noise exposure histories.
Fabry found that secondhand smoke exposure was significantly associated with increased risk of hearing loss for low- and midfrequencies for those who had never
smoked and for former smokers, as well as high frequencies for former smokers.
NEW REMOTE HEARING TEST EXPANDS ACCESS TO CARE
Work is in progress on a new real-time, remote diagnostic hearing assessment that allows interaction between clinician and patient. The low-cost technology is poised to bring treatment to rural and lowincome patients around the world.
"There are people throughout the world who have no access to professional hearing health care," says Dr. Gregg Givens, a practicing clinical audiologist and East Carolina University (ECU) professor who helped create the test. "This gives clinicians the ability to remotely diagnose and treat hearing loss."
Testing can be administered through local networks, the Internet, or on smart phones and tablet PCs. It is designed for use in many settings, including nursing homes, schools, hospitals, and correctional facilities. ECU and Otovation, a provider of audiometer products, are working to get the system up and running by mid-2011.
