Auditory system

Otitis externa (OE) is an inflammation or infection of the external auditory canal (EAC), the auricle, or both. There are a few types of OE; acute diffuse OE, acute localized OE, chronic OE, eczematous OE, necrotizing (malignant) OE an Infection that extends into the deeper tissues adjacent to the EAC and Otomycosis an Infection of the ear canal from a fungal species. The acute OE is most common in swimmers while the acute localized OE is associated with infection of a hair follicle. The chronic…

Aim - The aim of this experiment is to find out at what age the ability to hear high frequencies begin to degrade. Hypothesis - As people get older the ability to hear high frequencies is much lower than the ability to hear high frequencies as a child. Background - As people get older, their capability to hear degrades whereas younger people like children, have a much better hearing since adults have experienced loud noises throughout their lives which degrades their hearing a little. The…

ICF Hearing Experience The attached graph demonstrates my hearing loss on what is known as an audiogram. An audiologist used a machine called an audiometer to determine how loud a sound had to be for me to detect. To conduct this test, the audiologist placed headphones over my ears, then asked me to raise my hand when I heard a beep. While I raised my hand, the audiologist recorded the sounds I could hear on an audiogram. The horizontal axis represents increasing pitches, beginning with lower…

test: Rinne’s is a hearing test that uses tuning fork. Following steps are followed to evaluate the patient’s hearing: Hit the prongs of the tuning fork against a hard surface to make it vibrate. Place the vibrating prongs at the patient’s external auditory meatus; ask if he can hear it. Place the still-vibrating base on the mastoid process and ask whether it is louder in front of or behind the ear. Abnormal findings: if the sound is louder at the ear canal, the test is positive and air…

Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo (BPPV) is the most common form of vertigo. It is triggered by the head and neck being in certain positions, and presents with dizziness, spinning, loss of balance, and nausea. This type of vertigo is usually in older ages as well. The underlying pathology of this condition is that crystals form in the inner ear, which in turn cause the vertigo to occur in the aggravating positions. My patient is a sixty-year-old male who presents with vertigo that lasts 20-30…

Researchers are having a hard time of gathering statistics in the United States on the disease because of its severity ranging from mild to severe. Due to this problem, researchers have been using birth defects tracking systems to gather some results. The system has estimated from less than 1 in 10,000 live births for Microtia, type 1 to type 3, to 5 in 10,000 live births for Anotia. In the 80’s a lot of researchers were trying to figure out if the birth defect is a genetic disease or a…

I want to first start off by saying this was a hearing person that talked about the functions of what an audiogram does. I observed a guested speaker who talked about the audiogram. She gave us information about what audiogram and what she does. An audiogram is a graph that shows the audible threshold for standardized frequencies as measured by an audiometer which as a Y and X axis. The Y axis represents intensity measured by decibels and the X represents the frequency by hertz. The threshold of…

A small clump of hair was recovered from a murder victim who was holding onto the clump of hair. The first step is to determine the color, length, and diameter of the hair found. The shape and color intensity of pigment granules can be different if the hair has been dyed or bleached. Dyed hair has color in the cuticle and cortex; bleaching removes pigment and gives a yellow tint. Then, determine if the hair found is human hair or animal hair by checking the cuticle scale patterns. There are 3…

Misophonia is a brain disorder in which a trigger sound can send a person into extensive irritation or —in extreme cases—even rage. Symptoms typically present themselves in children from the ages of 9 to 13, but it can show both earlier and later in life. Affecting millions of people in the world, misophonia is extremely common and nearly undetectable in most cases. People who have very mild cases often times never go diagnosed; however, it does not usually have a large impact on their everyday…

In the past few years, stories and cases of hearing loss became more and more often. “How and why is this happening?” was the question racing through the minds of people worriedly. Upon hearing this trendy topic, author Jennifer Dignan wrote an article named “Throw Away Your earbuds Now!”, and claims that the reason for hearing loss is answered in this article. This essay is focused and centralized on the subject of how she supports her postulate that the answer to this question is not only in…