Study Design: Prospective.
Setting: Tertiary referral hospital.
Patients: Idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss patients.
Interventions: The patients in the systemic therapy group received consecutive administration of 100 mg intravenous methylprednisolone in the first day, 80 mg/day oral prednisolone in 3 divided doses for the next 2 days, and continued with oral administration of steroids by tapering the dose 20 mg in every 2 days. The patients in the combined treatment group received intratympanic injection of methylprednisolone (an approximate dose of 0.5 ml of 125 mg/ml). A total of 5 injections on alternate days were performed.
Main
Outcome Measures: selleck chemicals llc The mean and median PTA gains of systemic corticosteroid therapy (SCT) group were 7.5 and 5 dB at 5th day, 12.1 and 7.5 dB at 10th day, and 13.0 and 8.8 Selleckchem BMN-673 dB at 15th day. The mean and median PTA gains for combined treatment (CT) group were 12.5 and 7.5, 17.8 and 13.8, 21.8 and 20.0 dB, respectively.
Results: Both the mean and the median PTA gains were statistically significantly different between SCT and CT
groups. According to improved hearing results (more than 10 dB gain), there was statistically significant difference between SCT and CT groups. None of the patients had an important complication.
Conclusion: The results of this study suggest that adding intratympanic methylprednisolone to systemic therapy increases the probability of hearing recovery in ISSHL patients.”
“The potential of 12 fungal strains to produce carboxymethyl cellulase (CMCase) and protease on Eichhornia crassipes (water hyacinth) wastes was investigated under conditions of solid state fermentation. Ulocladium botrytis (Preuss) was selected as the best fungus for the production of both enzymes. The best nitrogen sources Galunisertib inhibitor for production of CMCase and protease were yeast extract and malt extract, respectively. CMCase and protease were purified by isopropanol (1:1) precipitation and column chromatography on Sephadex G-100 and DEAE-cellulose.
Purification fold of 47.34 and 51.78, with 852.11 and 1,469.38 U/mg specific activity was achieved with 40.3 and 56.25% recovery after purification of CMCase and protease, respectively. The purified CMCase expressed its maximal activity at 60 degrees C and pH 5.2, showed good stability in the pH range of 5.2-5.4 and its midpoint of thermal inactivation (Tm) was 60 degrees C after 75 min exposure. The purified protease expressed its maximal activity at 35 degrees C and pH 5.2, showed good stability in the pH range of 5.6-6.0 and its midpoint of thermal inactivation (Tm) was 35 degrees C after 75 min exposure. The best substrate concentration for CMCase was 1.2% (w/v) Na-CMC and for protease, it was 0.8% (w/v) casein. The best enzyme concentration for the two tested enzymes was 0.4 U/ml. Ions of Ca2+, Na+ and K+ showed a stimulatory effect but sodium arsenate and iodoacetate showed an inhibitory effect.