Evaluation of rehabilitation outcomes after cochlear implantation in later-implanted patients with prelingual deafness

Objective:To identify the changes in the quality of life and speech recognition ability of older pre-lingual deaf patients before and after cochlear implant surgery.Methods:A total of patients with pre-linguistic deafness who underwent unilateral cochlear implant surgery at the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University from February 2012 to November 2018 were taken as the research object.The CAP scale,SIR scale,and Nijmegen cochlear implant scale were used to assess the patient's condition for the quality of life before and 2 years after the operation,and compared the postoperative and preoperative scores were compared.At the same time,the angel language training was adopted.The auditory rehabilitation system and the Chinese open speech perception assessment system were used to test the speech recognition rate of patients before and 2 years after implantation.Results:The quality of life of patients undergoing cochlear implant surgery improved two years after the operation.CAP,SIR scores and NCIQ sub-fields(basic voice perception,advanced voice perception,speech ability,self-confidence,activity ability,and social communication)were significantly improved compared with those preoperatively,and the speech recognitionrate score was also improved.There was a significant correlation between the quality of life and speech recognition of the test patients.Conclusion:Cochlear implantation has a significant effect on improving the quality of life and speech recognition ability of older pre-linguistic deaf patients.The correlation between quality of life and speech recognition still needs to be further explored.Therefore,-,quality of life and language recognition are the assessment of older pre-linguistic deafness.The rehabilitation effect of patients after cochlear implantation needs to be considered at the same time.

Impact of nodular size on the predictive values of gray-scale,color-Doppler ultrasound,and sonoelastography for assessment of thyroid nodules

Objective:To define the roles of gray-scale,color-Doppler ultrasound,and sonoelastography for the assessment of thyroid nodule to determine whether nodule size affects the differential diagnosis of benign and malignant.Methods:A total of 243 consecutive subjects(214 women,29 men) with 329 thyroid nodules were examined by gray-scale,color-Doppler ultrasound,and sonoelastography in this prospective study.All patients underwent surgery and the final diagnosis was obtained from histopathological examination.Results:Three hundred and twenty-nine nodules(208 benign,121 malignant) were divided into small(SNs,5-10 mm,n=137) and large(LNs,>10 mm,n=192) nodules.Microcalcifications were more frequent in malignant LNs than in malignant SNs,but showed no significant difference between benign LNs and SNs.Poorly-circumscribed margins were not significantly different between malignant SNs and LNs,but were less frequent in benign LNs than in benign SNs.Among all nodules,marked intranodular vascularity was more frequent in LNs than in SNs.By comparison,shape ratio of anteroposterior to transverse dimensions(A/T) ≥1 was less frequent in LNs than in SNs.Otherwise,among all nodules,marked hypoechogenicity and elasticity score of 4-6 showed no significant difference between LNs and SNs.Conclusions:The predictive values of microcalcifications,nodular margins,A/T ratio,and marked intranodular vascularity depend on nodule size,but the predictive values of echogenicity and elastography do not.