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The Effects Of Healthy Hearing On The Middle Ear And Inner Ear

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Healthy hearing relies on multiple events to take place. For proper hearing all of the moving elements have to do their parts. If not it can cause hearing loss and other substantial symptoms. One disorder that shows how one malformation can cause overall hearing deficits is Otosclerosis. Otosclerosis is a disorder in which there is a malfunction during the fusion of bones in the middle ear and inner ear, which in turn causes the ossicles or surrounding bones not to vibrate in a manner that is conducive for proper hearing. The Etiology is unclear but scientist does have speculations of the possible onsets of Otosclerosis. Scientist have made great strides in treatments and therapy for those who have this disorder.
Otosclerosis is an…show more content…
The etiology of Otosclerosis of most patients is usually a genetic mutation or inherited from a parent. Otosclerosis is known to be a in an autosomal dominant pattern with variable penetrance. Which means that a child has a 50% chance of inheriting the gene if one parent is a carrier. Scientists have found that it can be multiple genes on the chromosomes that are affected that cause Otosclerosis. Showing that the disease does not just occur on one specific gene. Scientist where able to find in one case that a family had a mutation in a gene for collagen and antibodies against collagen, suggesting an autoimmune mechanism (Niedermeyer & Arnold 2002). Although, scientist found this information they cannot automatically say that this is the sole cause for Otosclerosis, because they have also found that in some cases of this diseases that it can be onset by an infection of the measles virus. A recent hypothesis suggests that otosclerosis requires a combination of a specific gene with exposure to a specific virus (for example measles) for it to be expressed and for hearing loss to occur (McGuirt et al, 1998). Scientists continue to work on this hypothesis because they have reason to believe that the measles virus predisposes patients to Otosclerosis. They have found viral material in the nucleic acid of the otosclerotic stapes footplates (Karosi et al 2008) and increased levels of antibodies to
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