New Methods and Applications of Vestibular Electrophysiology in Humans.

该项目包括一系列的实验和调查，使用新的方法来测试前庭器官（平衡器官）。这些感受器位于内耳的头骨深处，它们的疾病会导致头晕（眩晕）和不稳定。由于它们的位置，研究这些受体的功能一直很困难。在NH和MRC的支持下，我开发了两种新的前庭评估方法。目前，这些措施在香港和海外均已实施。也许这些新技术如何改善当前诊断方法的最明显的例子是Tullio现象，其中患者对响亮的声音做出反应时会感到头晕。我和我的同事已经证明，这些患者总是有一个典型的异常，即内耳的点击激活，这是我开发的测试之一。它可能在区分有X线异常倾向于这种情况的患者和实际患有全面综合征的患者方面发挥非常重要的作用，以便提供正确的治疗。这一建议是在前一个成功建议的基础上提出的。在这篇文章中，我提出了进一步研究前庭器官的新方法，这些方法避免了目前测试所必需的一些先决条件，并将使它们得到更广泛的应用。此外，将使用这些新方法评估以不稳定（共济失调）为特征的其他特定疾病状态，以确定异常前庭反射是否是平衡丧失的部分原因。在庆大霉素诱导的前庭损伤的情况下，将来有可能应用这些技术在早期检测变化，此时它们可能是可逆的。

This project consists of a series of experiments and investigations using new methods to test the vestibular apparatus (balance organs). These receptors lie deep within the skull in the inner ear and disease of them can cause dizziness (vertigo) and unsteadiness. Due to their location, investigation of the function of these receptors has been difficult. With NH and MRC support, I have developed two new methods of vestibular assessment. These are now being applied both here and overseas. Perhaps the clearest example of how these new techniques have improved current diagnostic methods is the Tullio phenomenon, in which patients feel dizzy in response to loud sounds. My colleagues and I have shown that these patients always have a characteristic abnormality to click activation of the inner ear, one of the tests that I developed. It is likely to have a very important role in distiguishing between patients with Xray abnormalities predisposing to this condition and those who actually have the full-blown syndrome, so that the correct treatment is offered. This proposal seeks to build on the previous successful one. In it, I propose further new methods of investigating the vestibular apparatus, which avoid some of the preconditions necessary for the present tests and would allow more widespread application of them. Furthermore, additional specific disease states which are characterised by unsteadiness (ataxia) will be assessed with these new methods to determine whether abnormal vestibular reflexes are partly responsible for the loss of balance. In one of the conditions to be investigated, gentamicin-induced vestibular impairment, there is the possibility in the future of applying these techniques to detect changes early, at a time when they are potentially reversible.