The site of lesion in hearing loss following neonatal hyperbilirubinemia is unclear. Histopathological studies have implicated the brain stem auditory nuclei while other investigations have hinted at a lesion in the cochlea. In order to clarify this issue, attempts were made to record responses from the auditory pathway in 13 patients with hearing loss following neonatal hyperbilirubinemia. The neural response from the auditory nerve was absent in 11 of the 13 patients and present only in response to high intensity stimuli in 2 patients. However, the response of the cochlear hair cells (cochlear microphonic potential) was present in 9 of the 13 patients. In most other cases of sensorineural hearing loss, with no history of hyperbilirubinemia, the hair cell response was absent. This is functional evidence for auditory nerve damage in cases of hearing loss following neonatal hyperbilirubinemia while the hair cells are spared.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Perceptions of academic strategies and competence in students with learning disabilities.

Research findings regarding general self-concept, academic self-concept, and self-awareness in students with learning disabilities have varied, and results are still inconclusive regarding the consistency between students' and teachers' judgments of academic performance. The current study focuses on students' and teachers perceptions of the students' strategy use and performance in nine different academic and organizational domains. Six hundred sixty-three students and their 57 teachers were involved in the study. Findings indicated that the students with learning disabilities considered themselves appropriately strategic and competent in the five domains of reading, writing, spelling, math, and organization. These students also rated their academic performance and organization as average to above-average in seven of nine domains, with the exception of checking and planning their work. Nevertheless, the self-ratings of the students with learning disabilities were still significantly lower than the self-ratings of average achievers in virtually all domains. The second major set of findings revealed a sharp discrepancy between the self-assessments of the students with learning disabilities and their teachers' judgments. Teachers rated the students with learning disabilities as weak in their strategy use and below-average in their performance in all nine academic and organizational domains. Finally, gender differences were not evident in eight of the nine domains. These results have added to the increasing body of literature indicating that students with learning disabilities frequently perceive themselves as capable and effective and often rate themselves as academically stronger than their teachers judge them to be.

Adolescent↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Congenital hemangiopericytoma/infantile myofibromatosis: radical surgery versus a conservative "wait and see" approach.

Infantile/congenital hemangiopericytoma, although sharing many similar histological features with adult hemangiopericytoma, has a much better prognosis. Nevertheless, most cases described in the literature were pursued by radical surgery with or without adjuvant chemotherapy. We describe a neonate who presented with a huge mass in the right gluteus, 6 x 5 x 4 cm, and a small ventral abdominal mass. The masses were confirmed on biopsy according to light microscopy, immunohistochemistry, and electron microscopy as congenital hemangiopericytoma. They shrank spontaneously within 2 weeks and vanished within 2 months. We present a hypothesis that masses appearing in the neonatal period with this histology and with no life-endangering pressure on vital organs should routinely be dealt with conservatively.

Adult↗