Spring 08 Week 7

An adult female was recruited to the clinic for a hearing evaluation. She reported having problems hearing in noise and she talk excessively loud on the phone. No other problems were reported. Normal tympanic membranes and clear ear canals were observed bilaterally. Normal tympanograms were measured bilaterally. Pure tone audiometry revealed thresholds within normal limits. Distortion product otoacoustic emissions were also administered with normal responses in all frequencies. Overall test results revealed normal hearing :)

After discussing some irrevelant information after the hearing evaluation, it was discovered that the recruit was at risk for breast cancer due to familial issues. This reminded me of an interesting finding of how cerumen characteristics were compared to the risk of breast cancer. Japanese women do not have a high risk of breast cancer genetically. However, in a study conducted in California, Japanese women with breast cancer often had a wet-type cerumen. The authors suggest that the glands controlled by the apocrine system have a genetically determined variation that influences the susceptibility to breast cancer. The article is somewhat old but I did not have access to the newer ones.

Petrakis, N.L. (1971). Cerumen genetics and human breast cancer. Science, New Series, 173, No. 3994, 347-349.

http://www.jstor.org.www.libproxy.wvu.edu/stable/view/1732386