Tinnitus is a perception of sound without external stimuli. The increase of noise from industrialization, complex psychological state, increase of old age people, and excessive medication make tinnitus a more common disease than ever before. However, the knowledge regarding diagnosis and treatment of tinnitus is still limited. Tinnitus can be categorized into paraauditory tinnitus and sensory neural tinnitus. Paraauditory tinnitus may occur from the sound generated by the vessel near the ear such as an arteriovenous fistula, abnormal vessel, a tumor around vessel, palatal myoclonus, and patent E tube. Sensory neural tinnitus can arise from senile hearing loss, noise-induced hearing loss, sudden deafness, sensorineural hearing loss associated with chronic otitis media, excessive medication, and so on. But there are many cases in which the specific cause cannot be defined. Diagnosis needs thorough history taking, physical examination, and radiologic and audiologic examination. Treatments for the paraauditory tinnitus are vessel ligation or coil embolization of arteriovenous fistula and removal of the causative factors. Although there are many treatment modalities for managing sensory neural tinnitus, a standardized treatment modality has not been established. Sensory neural tinnitus can be managed with tinnitus retraing therapy and electrical stimulation therapy. Although tinnitus is essentially not a life-treatening disease, advancing quality of life and the increasing number of patients with tinnitus mandate health-care providers to be more concerned with the disease tinnitus.
Arteriovenous Fistula ; Classification ; Deafness ; Diagnosis ; Ear ; Electric Stimulation Therapy ; Embolization, Therapeutic ; Hearing Loss, Noise-Induced ; Hearing Loss, Sensorineural ; Hearing Loss, Sudden ; Humans ; Ligation ; Myoclonus ; Noise ; Otitis Media ; Physical Examination ; Quality of Life ; Tinnitus*

No abstract available.
Adenoma, Pleomorphic* ; Neurilemmoma*

No abstract available.
Cholesterol* ; Granuloma* ; Temporal Bone*

No abstract available.
Audiometry, Speech* ; Otitis Media* ; Otitis*

No abstract available.
HLA-DR Antigens* ; Polymerase Chain Reaction*

No abstract available.
HLA-DR Antigens* ; Polymerase Chain Reaction* ; Spermatozoa*

No abstract available.
Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia* ; Humans ; Infant, Newborn

No abstract available.
Fistula*

No abstract available.
Complement System Proteins* ; Otitis Media with Effusion* ; Otitis Media* ; Otitis*

BACKGROUND: Serum eosinophil cationic protein(ECP) level has been proposed as a indirect marker of eosinophilic inflammation of the airway in bronchial asthma. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate serum ECP against indirect clinical markers of disease, we compared bronchial obstruction, bronchial hyperresponsiveness and peripheral blood eosinophil counts, total IgE with serum ECP levels in patients with bronchial asthma and normal controls. METHOD: Fourty-two patients with bronchial asthma and twenty-six normal controls were enrolled. Measurement were made by spirometry, inhalation challenge with methacholine, peripheral blood eosinophil counts, total IgE and FEIA(fluoroenzymatic immunoassay) of serum ECP RESULT: Serum ECP levels were significantly higher in asthmatic patients than normal controls(p<0.0,5). Serum ECP levels were correlated with peripheral blood eosinophil counts(p<0.01, r=0.544) and bronchial hyperresponsiveness(PC,)(p<0.01, r=-0.456) in patients with bronchial asthma. Serum ECP levels were correlated with degree of bronchial obstruction(FEV, % to predicted value, FEV1/FVC%) in total subjects, but not in asthmatic patients. CONCLUSION: Serum ECP level may be used as indicator of disease activity in bronchial asthma and be helpful in differentiation between normal person and asthmatic patients on simple serological method. Further studies on the changes of serum ECP levels according to disease course and therapeutic responses are needed.
Asthma* ; Biomarkers ; Eosinophil Cationic Protein* ; Eosinophils ; Humans ; Immunoglobulin E ; Inflammation ; Inhalation ; Methacholine Chloride ; Spirometry