Takaomi Kurioka

• Professor (Associate) at Kitasato University

Cystic diseases of the salivary gland include mucous cysts and plunging ranula; cysts in the parotid region are rare. In this report, we describe a case of a first branchial cyst in the parotid region. The cyst extended into the parapharyngeal space and was repeatedly infected. The patient was a 35-year-old woman who presented to our hospital with...

McCune–Albright syndrome is a disorder of fibrous bone dysplasia complicated by skin pigmentation and endocrine abnormalities. Although temporal bone lesions are rare, surgical treatment is required when external auditory canal (EAC) stenosis develops. However, no consensus has been reached regarding surgical approaches. To safely perform surgery f...

Introduction In recent years, transcanal endoscopic ear surgery (TEES) has gained widespread recognition as an excellent surgical field for blind spots such as the sinus tympani (ST) when compared to microscopic ear surgery (MES). Objective To investigate the postoperative hearing results for pars tensa cholesteatoma and the indications for utilizi...

Age‐related hearing impairment (ARHI) is commonly associated with decreased auditory temporal resolution caused by auditory neurodegeneration. Age‐related deterioration in gap detection ability, resulting in poor temporal auditory processing, is often attributed to pathophysiological changes in both the peripheral and central auditory systems. This...

A 60-year-old woman, a housebound patient for COVID-19, visited her previous doctor because of a worsening sore throat. A simple CT showed swelling around the left tonsil with gas shadows, and so she was transferred to our hospital during the night for a close examination and treatment for a suspected left peritonsillar abscess. At admission, a vid...

Transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) signaling plays a significant role in multiple biological processes, including inflammation, immunity, and cell death. However, its specific impact on the cochlea remains unclear. In this study, we aimed to investigate the effects of TGF-β signaling suppression on auditory function and cochlear pathology in mice...

Objective Statins have been reported to improve vascular endothelial function and microcirculation, reduce oxidative stress, and exert anti‐inflammatory and protective effects against inner ear damage. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the effect of statins on hearing prognosis in patients with idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss...

Blast exposure causes serious complications, the most common of which are ear-related symptoms such as hearing loss and tinnitus. The blast shock waves can cause neurodegeneration of the auditory pathway in the brainstem, as well as the cochlea, which is the primary receptor for hearing, leading to blast-induced tinnitus. However, it is still uncle...

Introduction Some idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss (ISSHL) cases experience repetitive systemic corticosteroid treatment, but studies focusing on repetitive systemic corticosteroid administration have not been reported. Thus, we investigated the clinical characteristics and usefulness of repetitive systemic corticosteroid treatment in I...

Respiratory-related dysphagia and aspiration pneumonia can be attributed to multiple causes. However, reproduction of multiple factor-related respiratory distress and aspiration pneumonia in a single animal model is challenging. To validate animals with vagal nerve palsy as novel models for severe aspiration pneumonia associated with respiratory di...

Objective: Some studies have directly compared the National Acoustic Laboratories' prescription for non-linear hearing aids (HAs) version 2 (NAL-NL2) and Desired Sensation Level for non-linear HAs version 5 (DSLv5), although none were performed in Japan. As the Japanese language is a tonal language that has different linguistic characteristics tha...

Background: Few investigations have been conducted on the clinical characteristics of the differential diagnosis of acoustic neuroma with acute sensorineural hearing loss and idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss. The aim of the study was to investigate the clinical characteristics of the differential diagnoses between acoustic neuroma and...

Objective To reveal the factors affecting the incidence of chorda tympani nerve (CTN) transection during middle ear surgery. Study Design Retrospective case review. Setting Tertiary referral center. Patients We analyzed 232 ears (117 ears with cholesteatoma, 101 ears with chronic otitis media, and 14 ears with otosclerosis) that underwent tympan...

We investigated the QOL of elderly hearing-impaired people using three questionnaires used to evaluate the comprehensive health-related quality of life, subjective well-being, and social activity. The subjects were 149 people aged 65 years or older with moderate hearing loss who visited the Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Kitasato University Hos...

Introduction: The prognosis of Bell's palsy, idiopathic facial nerve palsy (FNP), is usually predicted by electroneuronography in subacute phase. However, it would be ideal to establish a reliable and objective examination applicable in acute phase to predict the prognosis of FNP. Immune-nutritional status (INS) calculated from peripheral blood ex...

The auditory organs, including the tympanic membrane, cochlea, and central auditory pathway, are the most fragile components of the human body when exposed to blast overpressure. Tympanic membrane perforation (TMP) is the most frequent symptom in blast-exposed patients. However, the impact of TMP on the inner ear and central auditory system is not...

Tracheal stenosis is a refractory and recurrent disease induced by excessive cell proliferation within the restricted tracheal space. We investigated the role of extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK), which mediates a broad range of intracellular signal transduction processes in tracheal stenosis and the therapeutic effect of the MEK inhibito...

Background Patients undergoing hemodialysis (HD) tend to experience hearing loss, including idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss (ISSHL). However, little is known about the relationship between HD and ISSHL. Objective To investigate the effects of HD on the hearing level and the treatment prognosis of ISSHL. Methods We reviewed the medica...

Blast exposure can induce various types of hearing impairment, including permanent hearing loss, tinnitus, and hyperacusis. Herein, we conducted a detailed investigation of the cochlear pathophysiology in blast-induced hearing loss in mice using two blasts with different characteristics: a low-frequency dominant blast generated by a shock tube and...

Objective The effects of iron deficiency on the prognosis of idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss are unclear. This study aimed to investigate the association between serum iron levels and idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss prognosis and its usefulness as an independent prognostic marker for idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing...

We investigated the neuroplasticity of auditory neurons (ANs) in adult mice with conductive hearing loss (CHL). Eight-week-old male C57BL/6 mice were bilaterally earplugged for 4 weeks (CHL (+) group) and allowed to survive for a further 4 weeks after removal of the earplugs (CHL (+/－) group). The control mice (CHL (－) group) did not undergo the ea...

Hearing loss is associated with cognitive decline and dementia risk. Sensorineural hearing loss suppresses hippocampal neurogenesis, resulting in cognitive decline. However, the underlying mechanism of impaired neurogenesis and the role of microglial activation and stress responses related to hearing loss in the hippocampus remains unknown. Using a...

We examined the functional and structural changes of auditory neurons (ANs) in adult mice after conductive hearing loss (CHL). Earplugs (EPs) were bilaterally inserted in male 8-week-old mice for 4 weeks [EP(+) group] and subsequently removed for 4 weeks [EP(+/−) group]. We examined the control mice [EP(−) group] with no EPs inserted at 12 weeks. T...

Background. In idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss (ISSNHL), the relationship between the administration duration of vitamin B12 (vit B12) with adenosine triphosphate (ATP) and their therapeutic effect is not fully understood. Objective. To investigate the therapeutic effect of long-term 16 (�weeks) administration of vit B12 with ATP on th...

The auditory sensory epithelium of the mammalian inner ear is a highly organized structure that contains sensory hair cells (HCs) and non-sensory supporting cells (SCs). Following the partial loss of HCs after cochlear insults such as overstimulation or ototoxic drugs, SCs seal the luminal epithelial surface (reticular lamina) and reorganize its ce...

Determining the amplification characteristics of hearing aids is the most important step in hearing aid fitting. The amplification characteristics determined by systems such as NAL-NL (National Acoustic Laboratory-nonlinear) and DSL (Desired Sensation Level) in the software are calculated based on the characteristics of the normal adult external au...

Objective We used real-ear insertion gain (REIG), with the international speech test signal (ISTS), to evaluate the amplifying characteristics of hearing aids, set for patients who have been wearing such aids for a long time in a stable manner. We further compared this to the target values of the DSLv5 and NAL-NL2 methods. Methods The subjects wer...

Objective This study aimed to compare the difference in maximum speech discrimination score (SDSmax) of the worse-hearing ear in asymmetric hearing loss (ASHL) patients with that in symmetric hearing loss (SHL) patients. Design We retrospectively reviewed medical records of patients with suspected hearing loss (HL) who underwent audiometric examin...

Auditory nerve fibers synapse onto the cochlear nucleus (CN) and are labeled using the vesicular glutamate transporter-1 (VGLUT-1), whereas non-auditory inputs are labeled using the VGLUT-2. However, the underlying regulatory mechanism of VGLUT expression in the CN remains unknown. We examined whether a sound level decrease, without primary neural...

Objectives: Effects of decreasing auditory activity on speech discrimination ability are not fully understood. To investigate influence of decrease in auditory activity due to conductive and sensorineural components of hearing loss (HL) on speech discrimination ability. Materials and methods: We retrospectively reviewed medical records of patien...

Hair cells in the mature cochlea cannot spontaneously regenerate. One potential approach for restoring hair cells is stem cell therapy. However, when cells are transplanted into scala media (SM) of the cochlea, they promptly die due to the high potassium concentration. We previously described a method for conditioning the SM to make it more hospita...

Cell-penetrating peptides (CPPs) are short sequences of amino acids that facilitate the penetration of conjugated cargoes across mammalian cell membranes, and as such, they may provide a safe and effective method for drug delivery to the inner ear. Simple polyarginine peptides have been shown to induce significantly higher cell penetration rates am...

The ear is the organ that is most sensitive to blast overpressure, and ear damage is most frequently seen after blast exposure. Blast overpressure to the ear results in sensorineural hearing loss, which is untreatable and is often associated with a decline in the quality of life. In this study, we used a rat model to demonstrate the pathophysiologi...

Cell-penetrating peptides (CPPs) are short sequences of amino acids that facilitate the penetration of conjugated cargoes across mammalian cell membranes, and as such, they may provide a safe and effective method for drug delivery to the inner ear. Simple polyarginine peptides have been shown to induce significantly higher cell penetration rates am...

Synaptopathy in the cochlea occurs when the connection between inner hair cells and the auditory nerve is disrupted, leading to impaired hearing and nerve degeneration. Experiments using transgenic mice have shown that overexpression of NT3 by supporting cells repairs synaptopathy caused by overstimulation. To accomplish such therapy in the clinica...

In experimental animal models of auditory hair cell (HC) loss, insults such as noise or ototoxic drugs often lead to secondary changes or degeneration in non-sensory cells and neural components, including reduced density of spiral ganglion neurons, demyelination of auditory nerve fibers and altered cell numbers and innervation patterns in the cochl...

Objective: Ototoxic damage caused by aminoglycosides (AG) leads to the loss of cochlear hair cells (HCs). In mammals, mature cochlear HCs are unable to regenerate, and their loss results in permanent hearing deficits. Our objective was to protect the inner ear from damage after an AG challenge. The generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS), one...

Antiresorptive drugs have been widely used to treat patients with hypercalcemia caused by malignancy, bone metastasis, multiple myeloma, and osteoporosis. However, it is well known that antiresorptive drugs can cause osteonecrosis of the jaw (ONJ). Herein, we report a rare case of nasal septal abscess caused by medication related osteonecrosis of t...

Extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) is a member of the family of mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) and coordinately regulates a multitude of cellular processes. In response to a variety of extracellular stimuli, phosphorylation of both threonine and tyrosine residues activates ERK. Recent evidence indicates that ERK is activated in...

Gene therapy with viral vectors is one of the most promising strategies for sensorineural hearing loss. However, safe and effective administration of the viral vector into cochlear tissue is difficult because of the anatomical isolation of the cochlea. We investigated the efficiency and safety of round window membrane (RWM) application of Sendai vi...

A 70-year-old male presented with unexpected psychogenic stuttering. He suddenly began to stutter while he was hospitalized with pneumonia. At the initial consultation to our department, the primary symptoms were severe part-word repetitions. However, laryngopharyngeal abnormalities, dysarthria, aphasia and neurologic abnormality were not observed...

Noninvasive low-level laser therapy (LLLT) is neuroprotective, but the mechanism of this effect is not fully understood. In this study, the use of LLLT as a novel treatment for noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) is investigated. Sprague-Dawley rats were exposed to intense noise and their right ears were irradiated with an 808nm diode laser at an out...

Objective The introduction of minimally invasive surgical procedures using sialendoscopy has significantly reduced the rate of major salivary gland removal due to sialolithiasis. The present study assessed the utility of sialendoscopy and identified potential factors influencing successful sialendoscopic salivary stone retrieval. Methods Medical r...

Recently, the number of blast injuries of the inner ear has increased in the general population. In blast-induced inner ear injury, a shock wave (SW) component in the blast wave is considered to play an important role in sensorineural hearing loss. However, the mechanisms by which an SW affects inner ear tissue remain largely unknown. We aimed to e...

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) that form in the inner ear play an important role in noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL). Recent studies have revealed that molecular hydrogen (H2) has great potential for reducing ROS. In this study, we examined the potential of hydrogen gas to protect against NIHL. We tested this hypothesis in guinea pigs with 0.5%, 1....

Recently, several transoral approaches for minimally invasive surgery have been developed for oropharyngeal cancer. However, all approaches have certain disadvantages. Therefore, we built and examined new surgical environments for improving the situation. Endoscopic transoral resection using a pharyngeal retractor or distending laryngoscope, rigid...

T-817MA (1-{3-[2-(1-benzothiophen-5-yl)ethoxy]propyl}azetidin-3-ol maleate), a neurotrophic compound newly synthesized for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease, has been found to reduce oxidative stress and exert neuroprotective effects. By assessing the auditory functioning and observing the cochlear sensory epithelia, we investigated whether T-81...