Introduction: Diabetes Mellitus is the most prevalent endocrine disease. It causes several complications, such as retinopathy and nephropathy. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effect of diabetes mellitus on sensory-neuron auditory impairment.       Materials and Methods: We conducted this case - control study during the years of 2006-2008 with the collaboration of Mashhad Diabetes Center and the Audiometric Clinic at Ghaem Hospital. Considering the inclusion and exclusion criteria, 300 diabetic patients, as the case group and 300 persons as the control group entered this study. These two groups were matched by sex and age. Audiometric examinations, consisting of Pure Tone Audiometric Test, Diapason Tests and Autoscopy were administered on the participants in the present study.Results: There was a significant difference between control and case groups in sensory-neuron auditory impairment at high and low-median frequencies. Also, there was not any association between the duration of the disease and the level of sensory-neuron auditory impairment (P>0.05). In addition, the findings indicate a significant relationship between the complicated and uncomplicated groups in terms of the level of sensory-neuron auditory impairment at high frequencies. Patients with type II Diabetes Mellitus showed prominent sensory-neuron auditory impairment at high and low-median frequencies, as compared to the control group (P<0.05). There was not such association in Type I Diabetes Mellitus (P>0.05). Furthermore, there was a significant difference between two types of Diabetes Mellitus in the level of sensory-neuron auditory impairment. which was prominent in high frequencies (P<0.05). Also, this study showed that there was not any sex difference in the sensory-neuron auditory impairment (P>0.05).Conclusion: We propose the necessity of administrating regular audiometric examinations for the patients with diabetes mellitus. Early detection of sensory-neuron auditory impairment can decrease its progression due to better glycemic control.

Background and Aim: COVID-19 is an acute respiratory disease, caused by a coronavirus named SARS-CoV-2. Previous reports suggest an association between COVID-19 infection and Hearing Loss (HL). We have investigated the Universal Newborn Hearing Screening (UNHS) results in the time period of COVID-19 epidemic in Guilan Province, north of Iran. Methods: We analyzed UNHS results from10 major obstetrics hospitals from 20th Mar 2020 to 19th Mar 2021, and compared the total UNHS positive/“, refer”,and total neonatal HL reports with the same time periods of recent three years. The prevalence of risk factors for HL were analyzed during the same period. Results: The total number of childbirth was decreased significantly from 27735 birth cases in Mar 2017-2018 to 18216 births in Mar 2020-2021 (p<0. 001), but the total “, refer”,rate was significantly increased from 63. 0 per 1, 000 births in Mar 2019-2020 to 79. 8 in Mar 2020-2021 (OR=1. 29, 95% CI: 1. 19-1. 39, p<0. 001), and also increased from 74. 7 per 1, 000 births in Mar 2017-2020 to 79. 8 in Mar 2020-2021 (OR=1. 07, 95% CI: 1. 01-1. 14, p=0. 020). The HL rate increased from 10. 3 per 10, 000 births in Mar 2019-2020 and from 11. 4 per 10, 000 births in Mar 2017-2020 to 18. 7 in Mar 2020-2021 (OR=1. 81 and 1. 63, 95% CI: 1. 06-3. 09 and 1. 10-2. 44, p=0. 028 and 0. 015, respectively). The prevalence of preterm birth (p=0. 039) and neonatal intensive care unit stay (p=0. 016) was increased significantly during Mar 2020-2021. Conclusion: The chance of “, refer”,results and neonatal HL, found in the UNHS program, increased during the COVID-19 epidemic in comparison to the past years.

Background and Aim: Hearing has an important role in speech production and making phonological distinction, especially voicing distinction. Voice onset time (VOT) has been a reliable acoustic cue of voicing differences in plosive consonants. The purpose of this study was to measure VOT in initial Persian (Farsi) oral plosives produced by cochlear implanted children, comparing to normal Hearing children.Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 20 cases and 20 controls were assessed. Cases were prelingually deaf children who were cochlear implanted 4.5 years prior to test. Controls were normal Hearing children at 4.5 years of age. VOT were measured while children uttered oral plosives. The effect of Hearing status, voicing, and gender on VOT were assessed.Results: The amount of VOT of plosives produced by girls was higher than boys, in both groups. This difference was significantly higher in voiceless plosives than in voiced ones. In both groups, voiceless plosives had long-positive VOT value; while the amount of VOT was short-positive regarding voiced plosives.Conclusion: It was demonstrated that VOT is significantly correlated with voicing. In voiceless plosives, VOT could not be considered as a phonetic correlate of Hearing status; whereas it made significant differences between cochlear implanted children and Hearing controls. Furthermore, it was confirmed that concerning voiceless plosives, the amount of VOT of girls was significantly higher than boys. On the contrary, in voiced plosives, gender had no significant effect on the amount of VOT.

Background and Aim: Hearing loss is considered a main cause of speech-language delay and academic performance retardation. This study aimed to detect the prevalence of Hearing loss diagnosed for the first time in primary school children. Methods: A cross-sectional study has involved 624, randomly chosen, primary school children. The children have undergone Hearing screening using tympanometry, and pure tone audiometry screening in order to detect the children with undiagnosed Hearing loss. Results: Six hundred and twenty-four children underwent tympanometry which showed that 481 children have type A Tympanogram, 39 have type C, 16 have type A in one ear and type C in the other, 78 have type B, and 10 of them have type B in one ear and type C in the other. Then all children underwent pure tone audiometry screening and this showed that 565 children have responded to 20 dB for all frequencies, 42 have not responded to 20 dB at any frequency, 27 of them are from those children with type B Tympanogram, 10 children have not responded to 20 dB for frequencies >2000 Hz, 7 of them have not responded to 20 dB at any frequency in one ear with normal responses in the other. Conclusion: School age Hearing screening is an important procedure to detect Hearing loss in children in order to manage Hearing loss as early as possible and avoid its consequences.

Background: There always has been a question about the best age for cochlear implantation (CI) in prelingual deaf children. The age factor in the outcome of cochlear implantation in prelingual deaf children has been the subject of many studies. The aim of the present study was to find the effect of age at the time of implantation on Hearing threshold of these children. Methods: One hundred and nine prelingual deaf children who had undergone CI were enrolled. The mean Hearing threshold (HT) at octave intervals from 125 to 8000 Hz at different periods from the operation time were compared between those patients whose age at the time of implantation were less than 24 months and those whose age were equal or greater than 24 months. Results: The mean age of patients at the time of implantation was 38.9 months and a half of them had less than 28 months. There was no difference in mean HT between the two age groups across different measurement periods. A multiple regression model showed that device type was the sole significant predictor of mean HT at the first and third months after implantation, where age replaced it at the sixth month. Conclusion: These results suggest that what had been found in other studies as a favorable effect of younger age at the time of implantation on speech perception cannot be explained by a better Hearing, and there are other important factors including rehabilitation programs beginning at a younger age that may explain those findings.

Introduction: Regarding the high incidence rate of hyperlipidemia in the society and the adverse effects of its complications including the occurrence of Hearing loss in some of the patients, we decided to do this research.Materials and Methods: This is a cohort study, in cooperation with ENT units of Islamic Azad University Mashhad Hospitals, which was carried out in 2008-2009 in Mashhad to assess the effect of hyperlipidemia on Hearing. Ninety hyperlipidemic cases and 90 controls that were matched in terms of both age (two groups 30-50 years and 50-70 years) and sex entered the study. All the cases answered the questionnaire before the tests of audiometry. Then, those who were diagnosed with impaired Hearing due to other factors rather than hyperlipidemia were excluded from the study. Audiologic exams on 180 cases (including both the case and control groups) included pure tone audiometry, diapasonic tests and otoscopy.Results: This study revealed that there was a significant difference in Hearing loss in 5 frequencies (250, 1000, 2000, 4000, 8000 HZ) between two groups of case and control (P<0.05).Hypertriglyceridemic patients showed a distinct Hearing loss in 4 frequencies (250, 2000, 4000, 8000 HZ) comparing the control group and hypercholesterolemic patients (P<0.05). Hypercholesterolemic patients were found to have Hearing loss just in 1000 HZ of frequency, as compared to the control group and hypertriglyceridemic patients. Also, the findings of this study suggest that the sex of the patients had no influence on Hearing loss (P>0.05).Conclusion: According to our results, regular and periodic tests of audiometry are recommended for the hyperlipidemic patients to find out a history of audiologic problems and ultimately prevent the subsequent complications.