Taipei Veterans General Hospital might have just taken the lead globally in completing a preliminary diagnosis for a hearing impairment in less than one week and allowing doctors to offer treatment.
A hospital research team, headed by Department of Pediatric Medicine director Niu Dau-ming (牛道明), on Thursday said that they used Agena Bioscience’s MassARRAY system to examine up to many hundreds of single nucleotide polymorphisms per sample.
Three to five of every 1,000 newborns have a congenital hearing impairment, statistics show.
Taiwan follows the American Academy of Pediatrics’ 1-3-6 guidelines: screening by one month of age, diagnosis of hearing loss by three months of age and entry into early intervention services by six months of age.
Niu and his team attempt to determine whether a hearing impairment is congenital, a genetic mutation or the result of a viral infection in three types of infants: those confirmed to have a hearing impairment, but who did not undergo screening at one month of age; infants born prematurely; and infants with severe medical issues.
“With the device, we can assess within seven days whether the hearing impairment is due to an infection from cytomegalovirus or toxoplasmosis and offer treatment as soon as possible,” Niu said, adding that if the impairment is not due to an infection, the device helps isolate the genetic material that could uncover the source.
The project is to continue until April next year, with participants receiving rapid testing for free, Niu said.
The team hopes to make the service available to the public through the National Health Insurance system, Niu said, adding that even if patients had to pay for the screening, the cost should be under NT$1,000.
Separately, Niu said that he is working with National Yang Ming University’s Institute of Brain Science, the National Taiwan University’s College of Medicine and Harvard University Medical School on stem cell and genetic treatments for hearing impairments.
The project has successfully conducted animal trials and should soon be conducting clinical trials, Niu said, adding that the next issue of Molecular Therapy would be featuring the results as its cover story.
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