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Biomedical subjects

J Kei

Publications and source records attributed to J Kei.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

[Total aortic arch replacement for distal aortic arch aneurysm with adhered left lung: report of a case].

A 76-year-old man with a history of pleuritis and a cerebral infarct underwent a total arch replacement for an aneurysm of the distal aortic arch. Computed tomography revealed a true aneurysm having a maximum diameter of 70 mm as well as pleural thickening and calcification. Total arch replacement with selective cerebral perfusion was performed through median sternotomy and left thoracotomy. The myocardial ischemic time was shortened by reperfusion from the right axillary artery after the anastomosis of the proximal ascending aorta and the brachiocephalic artery. After the other branches of the arch were anastomosed, a distal anastomosis through the left thoracotomy was then performed using the pull-through method, enabling minimal decortication of the adhered lung. Our surgical procedure for distal arch aneurysm with adhered lung involves the addition of a left thoracotomy, but the reduction in the myocardial ischemic time and lung injury are of benefit.

Aged↗

[Three-channeled aortic dissection; report of a case].

The formation of 2 adjacent lumens is rarely observed in aortic dissection. We report herein a case of ruptured 3-channeled aortic dissection in a short time of hospitalization. A 58-year-old man who had been followed up for aortic dissection (Stanford type B) was admitted to Kumamoto National Hospital with an abdominal pain and a lumbago. A computed tomography (CT) revealed that a 3-channeled aortic dissection from the aortic arch to the right common iliac artery. An intramural hematoma was generated in the abdominal aorta and the left kidney was not enhanced. We initially adopted conservative therapies. But on the next day, he suddenly complained a severe back pain and died. At autopsy, the thoracic aorta was found to have ruptured into the mediastinum, and massive hematoma was formed.

Aortic Dissection↗

Outcomes of transient evoked otoacoustic emission testing in 6-year-old school children: a comparison with pure tone screening and tympanometry.

OBJECTIVES: (1) To establish test performance measures for Transient Evoked Otoacoustic Emission testing of 6-year-old children in a school setting; (2) To investigate whether Transient Evoked Otoacoustic Emission testing provides a more accurate and effective alternative to a pure tone screening plus tympanometry protocol. METHODS: Pure tone screening, tympanometry and transient evoked otoacoustic emission data were collected from 940 subjects (1880 ears), with a mean age of 6.2 years. Subjects were tested in non-sound-treated rooms within 22 schools. Receiver operating characteristics curves along with specificity, sensitivity, accuracy and efficiency values were determined for a variety of transient evoked otoacoustic emission/pure tone screening/tympanometry comparisons. RESULTS: The Transient Evoked Otoacoustic Emission failure rate for the group was 20.3%. The failure rate for pure tone screening was found to be 8.9%, whilst 18.6% of subjects failed a protocol consisting of combined pure tone screening and tympanometry results. In essence, findings from the comparison of overall Transient Evoked Otoacoustic Emission pass/fail with overall pure tone screening pass/fail suggested that use of a modified Rhode Island Hearing Assessment Project criterion would result in a very high probability that a child with a pass result has normal hearing (true negative). However, the hit rate was only moderate. Selection of a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) criterion set at > or =1 dB appeared to provide the best test performance measures for the range of SNR values investigated. Test performance measures generally declined when tympanometry results were included, with the exception of lower false alarm rates and higher positive predictive values. The exclusion of low frequency data from the Transient Evoked Otoacoustic Emission SNR versus pure tone screening analysis resulted in improved performance measures. CONCLUSIONS: The present study poses several implications for the clinical implementation of Transient Evoked Otoacoustic Emission screening for entry level school children. Transient Evoked Otoacoustic Emission pass/fail criteria will require revision. The findings of the current investigation offer support to the possible replacement of pure tone screening with Transient Evoked Otoacoustic Emission testing for 6-year-old children. However, they do not suggest the replacement of the pure tone screening plus tympanometry battery.

Acoustic Impedance Tests↗

The effect of high-pass filtering on TEOAE in 2-month-old infants.

The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of high-pass filtering on TEOAE obtained from 2-month-old infants as a function of filter cut-off frequency, activity states and pass/fail status of infants. Two experiments were performed. In Experiment 1, 100 2-month-old infants (200 ears) in five activity states (asleep, awake but peaceful, sucking a pacifier, feeding, restless) were tested by use of TEOAE technology. Five different filter conditions were applied to the TEOAE responses post hoc. The filter conditions were set at 781 Hz (default setting), 1.0, 1.2, 1.4 and 1.6 kHz. Results from this experiment showed that TEOAE parameters such as whole-wave reproducibility (WR) and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) at 0.8 kHz and 1.6 kHz, changed as a function of the cut-off frequency. The findings suggest that the 1.6 kHz and 1.2 kHz filter conditions are optimal for WR and SNR pass/fail criteria, respectively. Although all infant recordings appeared to benefit from the filtering, infants in the noisy states seemed to benefit the most. In Experiment 2, the high-pass filtering technique was applied to 23 infants (35 ears) who apparently failed the TEOAE tests on initial screening but were subsequently awarded a pass status based on the results from a follow-up auditory brainstem response (ABR) assessment. The findings showed a significant decrease in noise contamination of the TEOAE with a corresponding significant increase in WR. With high-pass filtering at 1.6 kHz, 21/35 ears could be reclassified into the pass category.

Acoustic Stimulation↗

[Coefficients between TEOAEs and DPOAEs in infants].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the coefficients of TEOAEs and DPOAEs based on various pass/fail criteria. METHOD: Thirty-six Australia infants were tested (age range: 1-6 months) using both TEOAE and DPOAE. Cohen's Kappa (K) were used to analyze different criteria. RESULT: There is a significant low agreement in the screening outcomes between TEOAEs and DPOAEs, and different criteria for TEOAEs. CONCLUSION: The findings from the study of coefficients among commonly used screening pass/fail criteria suggested that there is no simple relationship among them. The possible reasons for weak agreement were discussed.

Cochlea↗

Combined thoracic aortic or upper digestive tract resection for lung cancer and malignant mediastinal tumor.

OBJECTIVE: We studied possible indications and combined resection in patients with lung cancer and mediastinal tumors requiring combined thoracic aortic or upper digestive tract resection. METHODS: Ten patients with lung cancer and malignant mediastinal tumors (9 men and 1 woman aged 39 to 72 years; mean: 60.5) underwent combined aortic or upper digestive tract resection. RESULTS: Five--3 [corrected] with primary lung cancer, 1 with thymic cancer, and 1 with liposarcoma--, underwent combined aortic resection. In 2 each, lung cancer and malignant mediastinal tumor had infiltrated the thoracic aorta. The remaining case of lung cancer was complicated by aortic aneurysm in the distal arch. Cardiopulmonary bypass was conducted in 4, and selective cerebral perfusion in 2. Three patients are alive after 11, 22, and 61 months without disease recurrence. Those undergoing combined upper digestive tract resection all had lung cancer, with 4 having tumors infiltrating the esophagus or corpus ventriculi. The remaining patient had both lung and esophageal cancer. The patient treated with combined corpus ventriculi resection has survived 24 months and the patient treated with combined esophageal resection has survived 12 months without disease recurrence. The 1-year survival rate was 60%, 2-year 23%, and 3-year 23%. Prognosis was generally poor with the longest survival 13 months with N2 lung cancer. CONCLUSIONS: In combined resection due to malignant mediastinal tumor, T4N0-1 lung cancer, or diseases such as aortic aneurysm, prognosis can be expected to improve. Despite the often poor prognosis in T4N2 lung cancer, surgical intervention may be indicated to avoid complications due to tumor invasion and to lengthen survival and improve quality of life.

Adult↗

Paediatric hearing screening in the community: a comparison of outcomes from transient evoked and distortion product otoacoustic emission measures.

The present study aimed to compare TEOAE screening outcomes based on different pass/fail criteria and the outcomes from TEOAE and DPOAE measures in children. For the purpose of the study, the subjects were divided into two age groups: group 1 (n = 36; mean age 2.7 months, SD 1.2), and group 2 (n = 29; mean age 37.5 months, SD 16.3). Results indicated that the agreement of screening outcomes between pass/fail criteria for the TEOAE measure and between TEOAE and DPOAE measures was significantly lower for the younger group than for the older group. The greater variability in the younger age group could be partly attributed to the higher physiological noise produced by young infants. Irrespective of the pass/fail criteria used, the findings of the present study suggest that the OAE outcomes for children with weak OAEs or OAEs obscured by excessive noise were most variable.

Acoustic Stimulation↗

Transient evoked otoacoustic emissions in 6-year-old school children: a normative study.

Great potential has recently been demonstrated for the application of transient evoked otoacoustic emissions (TEOAEs) in screening the hearing of school-aged children. The present study aimed to describe the range of TEOAE values obtained from a large cohort of 6-year-old children in school settings. Results indicated significant sex and ear asymmetry effects on signal-to-noise ratio, response, whole wave reproducibility, band reproducibility and noise levels. A prior history of ear infections was also shown to influence response level, whole wave reproducibility and band reproducibility. The sex, ear and history specific normative data tables derived may contribute to future improvements in the accuracy of hearing screening for 6-year-old school children.

Acoustic Stimulation↗

Otoacoustic emission criteria for neonatal hearing screening.

Transient evoked otoacoustic emission measures are gaining acceptance as a technique in new-born hearing screening. At present a wide variety of pass-fail screening criteria are used in otoacoustic emission screening programs. In a study of 100 special care neonates and 35 well, full term babies, a number of screening criteria were examined for sensitivity and specificity characteristics when compared to a standard auditory brainstem response protocol. Results indicate that, for normal and special care neonates with a gestational age at test of 38-41 weeks, high sensitivity ( > 80%) could be obtained when a pass-fail criterion involving analysis of emission reproducibility, or emission reproducibility and emission response level, was set. Sensitivity was reduced for special care neonates who fell outside this age range. Specificity was found to be relatively low overall (always < 65%) and may relate to clinical factors in special care neonates not investigated in this study.

Evoked Potentials, Auditory, Brain Stem↗

Otoacoustic emission findings in Rett syndrome.

Rett syndrome is a neurologic disorder affecting mainly females after a seemingly normal 6 to 18 months of life. The resulting developmental disabilities include apparent dementia and loss of acquired language, social skills, and purposeful hand use. The present investigation assessed 10 individuals with Rett syndrome and a control group matched for age and sex. The present study aimed to determine the clinical feasibility of obtaining otoacoustic emissions (OAEs) from the Rett syndrome group and to compare the characteristics of the transient evoked and distortion-product OAEs obtained from the two subject groups. Results indicated that OAE evaluation is a clinically feasible method of assessing individuals with Rett syndrome. The Rett syndrome group had less robust OAEs, especially in the higher frequencies, when compared to the control group. Seven of the Rett syndrome group were identified as having reduced or absent OAEs in at least one ear. These findings suggest a need for hearing screening at an early age and monitoring of hearing on a regular basis.

Acoustic Impedance Tests↗

Feasibility of community-based hearing screening using transient evoked otoacoustic emissions.

This study investigated the feasibility of obtaining transient evoked otoacoustic emissions for hearing screening purposes from infants and children at seven child health clinics. Factors affecting the outcomes of the community hearing screening program were examined. The subject group comprised 2305 children aged two weeks to 11 y 11 mon. Many children were attending the clinics for initial immunisation at two months of age. While there were no exclusion criteria for the 1305 young infants tested who were in this category, all other children were screened only upon receipt of a referral from clinic nurses. Results indicated that 182 children (7.9%) did not complete the screening for both ears within the time constraint (usually 15 min) of a child health clinic visit. Three hundred and sixty-two children (15.7%) failed the first screening. Of the 226 children who returned for a second screening test, separated from the first by at least two weeks, 121 children failed. With parents' consent, 107 children (4.6% of all participants) were referred for diagnostic or medical assessment. Subsequently, 77 out of 94 children who received audiological or medical assessment were found to have some degree of hearing impairment. The majority of positive screening results were associated with middle ear disorder. The results suggest that TEOAE screening has potential as a technique in the community health setting but improvements in instrumentation are required to reduce 'could not test' cases and to separate probable conductive hearing loss from cases likely to have other disorders.

Audiometry, Evoked Response↗

Effects of background noise on click-evoked otoacoustic emissions.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effect of increased levels of background noise on click-evoked otoacoustic emission (CEOAE) recordings and to compare the effectiveness of the default CEOAE program with the QuickScreen CEOAE program in increased levels of noise, using an Otodynamics ILO88 recording device. DESIGN: The right ears of 40 young adult women with normal hearing were assessed using CEOAEs under four different noise conditions and with two different methods of data collection. The noise conditions were in quiet, 50 dB A, 55 dB A, and 60 dB A of white noise. Data were collected at each noise level in the default mode and also using the ILO88 QuickScreen program. RESULTS: There was a significant change in a number of important CEOAE output parameters with increased noise. In the default mode, mean whole wave reproducibility was 89.2% in quiet but declined to 85% with 50 dB A of white noise, 65% at 55 dB A and 20% at 60 dB A. The QuickScreen program proved more robust to the effects of noise than the default. In that mode, mean whole wave reproducibility was 91.7% in quiet, 92.5% with 50 dB A of white noise, 82.5% at 55 dB A and 45% at 60 dB A. CONCLUSIONS: The findings of the study indicate ambient noise levels for accurate CEOAE recording should not exceed 50 to 55 dB A of noise and alternatives to the default program should be considered in non-sound-treated situations.

Acoustic Stimulation↗

Infant hearing screening: a comparison of two techniques.

Hearing screening programs for Australian children are known to have poor coverage in many areas. In addition, only a minority of children are screened for hearing loss before 2 years of age. However, early detection of hearing loss and early treatment are generally considered very important to successful rehabilitation outcomes. Traditional methods of screening infants have limitations with their accuracy in detecting children with hearing loss. This study compared the results obtained with a traditional questionnaire approach to screening and a newer objective technique involving otoacoustic emission measures. Poor correlation was found between pass rates for the two techniques, suggesting that the questionnaire approach is not an accurate screening method for detecting infant hearing loss. With further development, otoacoustic emission testing holds promise as an objective alternative hearing screening procedure.

Acoustic Stimulation↗

Measuring the ability of hearing impaired children to understand connected discourse: a comparison of two methods.

Attempts to quantify the understanding of connected discourse have been based on: the number of embedded key words repeated correctly; the intelligibility ratings estimated by a listener; and the number of content-related questions answered correctly. This study was undertaken to compare the use of the latter two methods to measure the ability of hearing impaired children to understand connected discourse. Twenty-five normally hearing and 54 sensorineural hearing impaired Cantonese-speaking children rated how well they could understand a connected discourse passage, and answered content-related questions to show their level of understanding of the same passage. The effect of two different hearing aid frequency responses and two noise conditions on self-ratings and speech scores was also investigated. Both methods of assessment were able to demonstrate effects of hearing loss, frequency response and noise at approximately similar levels of significance. One of the findings from this study was the absence of any effect of testing method on the performance of the listeners to understand connected discourse. Consequently, either method can be used to provide essential information on the level of difficulty a hearing impaired child might experience in understanding connected speech in everyday life.

Adolescent↗

[A case report of left postero-lateral thoracotomy for simultaneous CABG and left lower lobectomy].

Surgical management of patients with concomitant resectable lung lesions and critical cardiac disease is controversial. We report a case of concomitant pulmonary and cardiac surgery via a left thoracotomy. A 67-year-old male was admitted to our hospital complaining of recurrent bloody sputum and an abnormal shadow on chest X-ray. Chest CT and MRI showed a tumor in the left lower lobe (S10), with invasion of the diaphragm. A diagnosis of squamous cell carcinoma was obtained by transbronchial lung biopsy. The patient had a history of angina pectoris, and stress testing was positive. Coronary angiography showed 90% stenosis at segment 5, suggesting a risk of perioperative or postoperative myocardial infarction. This necessitated simultaneous surgical treatment for lung cancer and ischemic heart disease. A lobectomy of the left lower lung was performed, followed by coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG), using the great saphenous vein. The postoperative course was uneventful except for the occurrence of cholecystitis. Lung cancer and ischemic heart disease can be safely treated simultaneously via a single incision, with and benefit for selected patients.

Aged↗

[Peri- and postoperative courses in patients undergoing concomitant cardiac and pulmonary operations].

We studied peri- and postoperative courses in patients undergoing concomitant cardiac and pulmonary operations (CCPO), which included pulmonary resection and coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG). Of eight patients who had lung cancer and ischemic heart disease (IHD), six underwent CCPO and two patients first had percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA) followed by lung surgery at an interval after the first procedure. Twelve patients with lung cancer who underwent only pulmonary surgery and 13 patients with IHD who were treated with CABG were studied as controls. We compared peri- and postoperative characteristics among these groups of patient. Operating time, bleeding volume during surgery, amount of drainage discharge within 24 hours after the operation, and ICU days were significantly increased in the CCPO group in comparison with the two control groups. In the CCPO group, mechanical ventilatory support time and administration days after the operation were significantly increased in comparison with the lung operation group, but not in comparison with CABG group. The two patients who sequentially underwent PTCA and lung surgery had postoperative courses similar to the CCPO patients. All CCPO patients were ambulatory upon discharge. None of the CCPO patients died from postoperative complications involving the respiratory tract or the circulatory system. Our data suggest that CCPO is available for patients with both heart and lung diseases when complications can be avoided by appropriate management, although these procedures are extremely invasive. We believe that CCPO should be attempted in patients with definite indications for such a procedure.

Aged↗

[A case of ACTH-releasing lung carcinoid tumor presenting Cushing's syndrome].

The patient was a 47-year-old female who had undergone hypophysectomy due to Cushing's syndrome when 46 years old. In April 1992, about 1 month after the operation, chest CT-scan revealed a lesion of 8 x 8 mm in size in the right upper lobe. A high value of serum ACTH was obtained from the A3b wedge blood by cardiac catheterization. She was operated on suspicion of ACTH releasing lung tumor. During the operation, it was histologically diagnosed as lung carcinoid by a frozen section of the lesion. In addition, ACTH of the blood obtained from the right superior pulmonary vein was as high as 37,300 pg/ml, but that in the right main pulmonary artery or the radial artery was 850-970 pg/ml. Right upper lobectomy with dissection of mediastinal lymph nodes was so performed. Post-operative value of serum ACTH was significantly decreased. She was in good course, and is still asymptomatic 8 months after the operation.

Adrenocorticotropic Hormone↗