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Conclusion: Most of the clinical cases experienced taste disturbance after stapes surgery, and in a few cases this disturbance persisted for a long time. The animal experiment suggested the role of geniculate ganglion (GG) cells in nerve generation. Objectives: To clinically examine taste disorder and its recovery after stapes surgery and experimentally demonstrate a role of GG. Patients and methods: Taste function after preservation of chorda tympani nerve (CTN) in stapes surgery was prospectively investigated with a questionnaire and electrogustometry (EGM). Further, expression of neurotrophic factors in GG after injury of CTN was examined by in situ hybridization histochemistry (ISSH) and RT-PCR. Results: Among the cases, 15/18 (83.3%) were associated with taste disturbance and 6/18 (33.3%) were associated with tongue numbness 2 weeks after surgery; however, the symptoms ceased in 14/18 cases (77.8%). Two weeks after surgery, the EGM threshold was found to be elevated in 15/18 cases (83.3%), while in 10/18 cases (55.6%), it did not decrease until 1 year after surgery. Expression of ISSH and amplified bands of BDNF and GFR increased at 7 and 14 days after nerve injury in ipsilateral GGs and also increased at 7 days on the contralateral side. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Positive surgical indications for an only hearing ear were evaluated in order to improve patients' quality of life. Fifteen cases of surgery involving an only hearing ear over the past eight years were retrospectively reviewed. Of eight perforated chronic otitis media cases, seven underwent type one tympanoplasty and one underwent simple underlay myringoplasty regardless of otorrhoea at the time of surgery. Of six cholesteatoma cases, two received the canal wall up method and four received the canal wall down method. Ossiculoplasty was carefully performed in six cases. Hearing was improved in seven cases, whereas it remained unchanged in seven cases and deteriorated in one case. Of nine patients, two did not need a hearing aid after surgery. Five patients with severe combined hearing loss (>90 dB) were able to communicate with a hearing aid, alleviating their anxiety regarding hearing loss. Only hearing ears with chronic otitis media and cholesteatoma can be successfully treated by tympanoplasty with or without ossiculoplasty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A 69 year old woman with hypertensive heart disease had a loud added sound which coincided with a sudden interruption of the early diastolic motion of the left ventricular posterior wall, as visualised by M mode echocardiography, and came just before early diastolic transmitral flow, as measured by a pulsed Doppler echocardiogram. Early diastolic motion velocity from the base to the middle of the posterior wall, assessed by pulsed Doppler tissue imaging, was markedly high and sharp, and its peak coincided with the sound. A notch, similar to that in the posterior wall motion, occurred in the left ventricular pressure curve during early diastole. No intraventricular flow signal was detected during the isovolumic relaxation period, as measured by pulsed and colour Doppler imaging. The added sound was probably produced by impact between the dilated heart, with a relaxation abnormality, and the extracardiac structures during the isovolumic relaxation period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article investigates the impact of aspartame on the production of lactic acid in human whole saliva. An experiment is described and results are discussed. Findings indicate that aspartame promotes lactate production from glucose, but suppresses pH levels in the presence of a supplemental sugar.

The article reports on the results of research which was conducted in an effort to promote lactate production in human saliva by oligopeptides of partial hydrolysate of bovine serum albumin. researchers determined that additional research was needed to elucidate the exact mechanisms involved in the lactate promoting process and the biomedical significance in the oral cavity.

The article presents research which explored the lactate production of various salivary microorganisms in preincubated saliva. The effect of glucose on lactate production is examined and the response of the salivary samples to heating is explored. The lactate production of Streptococcus salivarius is also researched.

The article discusses the effect of protein hydrosylates on the fermentative activity of streptococcus salivarius. The authors detail the experimental methods used in a study that shows that saliva peptides promote the fermentative activity of salivary sediment as well as the aerobic lactate production of streptococcus salivarius.