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Biomedical subjects

D N Brooks

Publications and source records attributed to D N Brooks.

At least 91 records · Page 5Linked to original sources
PubMed1976

Wechsler Memory Scale performance and its relationship to brain damage after severe closed head injury.

Eighty-two patients with severe head injury were tested on the Wechsler Memory Scale and compared with 34 normal subjects. Head injured patients had severe memory difficulties, particularly on Logical Memory and Associate Learning. Severity of head injury (post-traumatic amnesia duration) was related to poor memory, as was increasing age, but both persisting neurological signs, including dysphasia, and skull fracture were not.

Adult↗
PubMed1976

Middle ear effusion in children.

The middle ear function of over 100 school children has been observed for more than seven years with the aid of an electroacoustic impedance instrument. The technique readily demonstrates middle ear abnormalities. A few children may have middle ear malfunction for considerable periods without this being detected by those responsible for their health care. The presence of fluid in the middle ear is not necessarily an indication for treatment. The concept of acoustic impedance screening is advocated with suitable safeguards to prevent over-referral.

Audiometry↗
PubMed1975

Long and short term memory in head injured patients.

A group of severely head injured patients were compared with 15 controls on auditory vocal digit span, and on a free recall memory task, enabling short term memory (STM) and long term memory (LTM) to be examined. The free recall curves differed for the two groups suggesting that the head injured patients had an essentially normal STM, but a poor LTM. This was supported by the finding of a significantly lower number of semantic errors (presumably retrieved from LTM) and a normal digit span (STM) in the head injury patients. The severity of the injury as judged by post-traumatic amnesia or the presence of neurological signs at the time of memory testing showed only a weak relationship to the severity of the memory deficit. The presence of a skull fracture was of minor importance in determining the severity of the LTM defect. Patients tested early after the injury were significantly poorer on STM, but not on LTM.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1975

Cognitive recovery after severe head injury. 1. Serial testing on the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale.

The Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale was administered serially to 40 severely head-injured adults, and the results compared with a matched group of 40 non-injured men. The scores on the verbal subtests showed less initial impairment and were faster to recover to the level of the comparison group than were the non-verbal subtest scores. Verbal IQ of the head-injury group approached that of the comparison group within about one year of injury, while recovery of Performance IQ continued over about three years.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1974

Recognition memory, and head injury.

Severely head injured adults were tested on a recognition memory procedure involving the identification of eight recurring shapes among a series of 160. Compared with a control group, the tested patients showed many fewer correct responses. Their type of error was commonly a failure to recognize rather than a false recognition. The severity of the memory deficit was related to the length of post-traumatic amnesia (PTA), but to neither the presence of neurological signs at the time of memory testing, nor to the time after injury at which the patients were tested. The older patients showed a more significant relationship between PTA and memory score than the younger patients.

Age Factors↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Survey of binaural hearing aid users.

Two hundred four subjects supplied with binaural hearing aids through the British National National Health Service were surveyed by means of a postal questionnaire regarding their use of, attitudes of, and satisfaction with the two aids. The majority were using both aids regularly and extensively, and with high levels of satisfaction. Background noise was identified as the acoustic environment creating the greatest difficulty. Wind noise especially was a problem, although a few subjects had devised ways of coping. Significantly better attitudes within the family were reported by the good users, but it was not possible to establish which was cause and which effect. Binaural aids were reported as being significantly better than monaural aids in reducing the problems associated with tinnitus, which was present in almost half the subjects surveyed. Undoubtedly the majority of the patients reviewed believed that their auditory performance, social competence, and personal enjoyment of life were enhanced since changing to binaural aids.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Assessment of hearing level by means of the acoustic reflex.

It has been suggested that hearing level might be assessed by comparing the acoustic reflex thresholds (ARTs) for two modes of stimulation: by pure tones alone and by a combination of two pure tones, one of which is used as a "preactivator." Using an extrapolatory method for determining the reflex thresholds, 35 subjects (17 normal hearing and 18 hearing impaired) were used to test the above hypothesis. For the individual frequencies 75% of the hearing levels estimated from the ARTs lay within +/- 10 dB of the true threshold, and 97% within +/- 20 dB. However, although the method does appear to be more accurate than the Niemeyer and Sesterhenn method of estimating hearing loss from the ARTs for pure tones and noise bands, it has limitations due to the high levels of preactivating tone required, and the number of stimuli it is necessary to use. Some possible refinements are suggested that might improve the clinical applicability of the technique.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

School screening for middle ear effusions.

Early detection of middle ear effusions is highly desirable not only from a medical standpoint, but also educationally, psychologically and socially. Present methods do not appear to be adequate and the proposal has been made that impedance measurement may be of greater effectiveness in detecting abnormalities of middle ear function. Eighty children have been studied over a period of six to seven years during which time the middle ear function has been monitored by means of an impedance meter. Approximately one-half of the children have not indicated any variation in middle ear function over the period of observation. About one-third of the children have had isolated episodes of effusion from which they have recovered spontaneously and without adverse effects. The remaining one-sixth have had repeated episodes of effusion or persistent middle ear malfunction for substantial periods of time. Observation of the middle ear muscle reflexes at suitably chosen time intervals appears to have promise as a method of early detection of effusion in the middle ear.

Audiometry↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Possible long-term consequences of middle ear effusion.

Three studies will be reported in this paper and the suggestion made that there may be a connection between the findings. The first study concerns the middle ear status of 48 children treated in 1966/67 for middle ear effusion and followed up after ten years. Prior to treatment the median HL was 20 dB (SD = 13 dB) and at follow-up the median HL was 8 dB (SD = 5 dB). However, the otologic and tympanometric findings were less encouraging. Abnormal tympanic membranes (TM) were observed in almost half the children, the rate of abnormality relating to the number of surgical interventions made. However, the TM changes may be due either to the treatment or the disease itself. The second study concerns 104 children monitored by impedance testing over a ten-year period and tends to support the hypothesis that the effusion itself is the probable cause of the changes in the TM. The third study relates to applicants for hearing aids. Excluding those with clearly defined conditions such as otosclerosis, noise trauma and Meniére's disorder, etc, two clear groups emerged, one with uncontaminated sensorineural (SN) loss, the other with mainly SN loss but with a significant conductive overlay. Though the median hearing losses of the two groups are the same, the average age for the SN group (77;SD = 7 years) is 12 years greater than that of the "conductive" group (65;SD = 14 years). Few of the SN group can recall auditory dysfunction in childhood, but the majority of the conductive group have clear recall. It seems probable that middle ear disorders in childhood may give rise to auditory impairment in the elderly such that when combined with age-associated hearing loss the need for prosthetic aid arises at a much lower age.

Child↗