Shigeharu Yamanobe

Inner ear autoantibodies in patients with sensorineural hearing loss.

In order to identify the inner ear autoantibodies, sera of 195 patients with sensorineural hearing loss and/or vertigo were reached with bovine inner ear antigen by western blotting method. Positive reaction was seen at several molecular weights, in which 33-35 kD, 42 kD and 68 kD were highly reactive. In moderate to severe hearing loss patients, positive reactions with 33-35 kD, 42 kD, 68 kD and others were 25.8%, 26.8%, 26.8% and 71.5% respectively. On the other hand, a positive rate did not clearly correlate with diagnostic entities. Further study to purify inner ear antigen may evaluate inner ear autoimmune disease.

Relationship between Auditory Brainstem Response Waveform and Head Size

The relationship between the head size and the latency and amplitude of the auditory brainstem response (ABR) was investigated in 60 normal-hearing adults (30 males and 30 females). We found a strong positive correlation between the latency of ABR waves and the head size and a strong negative correlation surfaced between the ABR amplitude and head size. These results indicate that the head size is one of the most important factors influencing the waveform of the ABR.