Latest news with #MassEyeandEar
New York Post
30-04-2025
- Health
- New York Post
These 2 symptoms are hidden in plain sight — but can reveal a common condition linked to hearing loss
Sounds like treble. Some 50 million to 60 million Americans have experienced a ringing, buzzing or clicking in their ears that no one else hears, a frustrating condition known as tinnitus. An estimated 15% of tinnitus sufferers have a severe case that disturbs their sleep, mental health and daily routine. 3 An estimated 50 million to 60 million Americans have experienced a ringing, buzzing or clicking in their ears that no one else hears, a frustrating condition known as tinnitus. Aleksej – Now, researchers at Mass General Brigham have identified two involuntary, agonizing signs in tinnitus patients that appear 'hidden in plain sight.' 'These biomarkers get to the root of the distress,' said corresponding study author Daniel Polley, vice chair for basic science research and director of the Eaton-Peabody Laboratories at Mass Eye and Ear. What causes tinnitus? The phantom sounds can be caused by a variety of factors, including hearing loss, prolonged exposure to loud noise, ear infections, earwax buildup, medication side effects, head injuries and conditions like Ménière's disease, an inner ear disorder. How is tinnitus diagnosed? 3 Tinnitus severity can be tough to assess. Peakstock – Physicians diagnose tinnitus based on medical history, a physical exam, hearing tests and in some cases, imaging scans. Tinnitus severity is typically measured using questionnaires, psychoacoustic tests and clinical evaluations. Enter Polley's team. 'Imagine if cancer severity were determined by giving patients a questionnaire — this is the state of affairs for some common neurological disorders like tinnitus,' Polley said. 2 novel biomarkers for tinnitus Polley and his colleagues focused on the sympathetic nervous system, the body's 'fight, flight or freeze' mechanism. They recruited 97 volunteers — 47 had varying levels of tinnitus and sound sensitivity and 50 had normal hearing — to listen to pleasant, neutral or irritating sounds. The team used AI-powered software to detect the participants' rapid and subtle involuntary facial movements. The twitches in their cheeks, eyebrows or nostrils corresponded to tinnitus distress levels. 3 Researchers have identified two involuntary, agonizing signs in tinnitus patients. These images are from the study. Mass Eye and Ear 'For the first time, we directly observed a signature of tinnitus severity,' Polley said. 'When we began this study, we didn't know if sounds would elicit facial movements; so, to discover that these movements not only occur, but can provide the most informative measure to date of tinnitus distress, is quite surprising.' Polley also noticed that when people with severe tinnitus listened to different sounds, their pupils dilated extra widely. People without tinnitus or with less serious tinnitus had exaggerated pupil dilation and facial movements only when hearing the most unpleasant sounds. The findings were published Wednesday in the journal Science Translational Medicine. How the new research may help treatment There isn't a cure for tinnitus — hearing aids, sound therapy and cognitive behavioral therapy can help manage symptoms. Polley and his lab are using the results from this study to devise new therapies that combine neural stimulation with immersive software designed to reduce the perceived loudness of tinnitus phantom sounds. 'What's really exciting is this vantage point into tinnitus severity didn't require highly specialized brain scanners; instead, the approach was relatively low-tech,' Polley said. 'If we can adapt this approach to consumer-grade electronics, they could be put to use in hearing health clinics, as objective measures in clinical trials and by the public at large.' Polley also plans to expand his research to include tinnitus patients with co-occurring issues like hearing loss, advanced age or mental health challenges. They were excluded from this study because of the limited participant pool.
Yahoo
09-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Stem cell transplant restores vision in patient who was blinded in left eye after injury
Nick Kharufeh said he never thought he would see out of his left eye again after suffering an injury several years ago. Now, he is advocating for the procedure that restored his vision. The accident that cost Kharufeh his vision occurred on July 4, 2020, when he was at his aunt's house in Rialto, California -- about 10 miles north of Riverside -- for a block party, he said. Fireworks were lit for the holiday, with one of them exploding onto the ground instead of shooting up in the air, he told ABC News. The 28-year-old said the sparks "came into the crowd on both sides of the street," with Kharufeh getting a direct hit in his left eye. He approached his dad and said, "Hey, I can't see out of my left eye," but the damage couldn't be examined because it was dark outside. Kharufeh went inside to show his mom, who took one look at him and passed out, he said. "I was like, 'You know what, this is bad,'" Khaurfeh told ABC News. Once he arrived at the hospital, doctors told Kharufeh they would need to "remove whatever was left" of his eye. But a specialist later discovered his eye was still intact, and would not need to be taken out. MORE: Robin Roberts marks 12 years since 'GMA' return after stem cell transplant "He decided, 'You can keep it, it's probably very risky. You're never going to see out of it again, but it's there,'" Kharufeh said. "When I heard that, I felt a sigh of relief. I knew I might not be able to see perfectly fine out of it, but I knew I could keep it and see if anything ever came up." He said he received a second opinion from another hospital, who confirmed his eye was intact, but they emphasized to Kharufeh that "there's not really any procedures that can fix that." Kharufeh, who was 23 at the time, moved back home with his parents and tried to hide his injury from the world. "I didn't even look at myself in the mirror. I didn't tell any of my friends about it for months," Kharufeh said. But in September 2020, his mom found out about a clinical trial in Boston for a first-of-its-kind operation that could potentially restore Kharufeh's cornea and bring back his vision. The trial was held at Mass Eye and Ear, an international center for treatment that is a member of Mass General Brigham and a teaching hospital for Harvard Medical School. "When I found out Mass Eye and Ear could help me, or that they were at least willing to try, it was a huge weight lifted off my chest," Kharufeh said. "I was willing to give up my whole life to come out here." The treatment, called a cultivated autologous limbal epithelial cell transplantation -- or CALEC -- can help restore surface corneal epithelial cells, which can be destroyed after chemical burns, infections or other injuries, according to Dr. Ula Jurkunas, an ophthalmologist and associate director of the cornea service at Mass Eye and Ear who performed Kharufeh's surgery. "This is the first stem cell trial in the cornea in the U.S., and is paving the way for further treatments of this sort," Jurkunas told ABC News. When the cells are depleted in the cornea, patients can then experience painful blindness and a loss of vision, Jurkunas said. Restoring those stem cells by growing them in a lab can treat the cell deficiency that gives rise to corneal blood vessel growth, cloudiness and pain, Jurkunas said. Jurkunas said the transplant involves taking a small biopsy from a healthy eye, extracting the stem cells in a lab, growing them to a sheet of cells that can "later be transplanted onto the patient's diseased eye." MORE: Paralyzed man who can walk again shows potential benefit of stem cell therapy Kharufeh said his biopsy occurred in January 2021 and his transplant was completed the next month. In the years after the operation, Kharufeh said his vision is restored to about 50% of what it was before. He added that his pain has vanished and the appearance of his eye "looks a lot more normal." "I couldn't work for a couple of years; I couldn't meet new people. So [I am] very happy with where it's at now," Kharufeh said. Out of the 14 trial participants, about 92% were able to have a restoration of the corneal surface at 12 to 18 months post-operation, and 72% experienced vision improvement, Jurkunas said. After the knowledge gained from this trial, Jurkunas said this operation could be available for "many more patients" and hopes to develop a way to treat those with bilateral eye injuries. Kharufeh said he hopes that as more people learn about the CALEC procedure, it will become a mainstream form of treatment and "the next big thing" for patients with eye injuries. "Fourth of July is not going away, fireworks are not going away, so [these injuries are] going to keep happening," Kharufeh said. "Being able to see again, look at yourself in the mirror and look like you is just so impactful." Kharufeh said he will run the Boston Marathon in April for Mass Eye and Ear to raise money for those wanting to have the CALEC procedure. Stem cell transplant restores vision in patient who was blinded in left eye after injury originally appeared on
Yahoo
09-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Stem cell transplant restores vision in patient who was blinded in left eye after injury
Nick Kharufeh said he never thought he would see out of his left eye again after suffering an injury several years ago. Now, he is advocating for the procedure that restored his vision. The accident that cost Kharufeh his vision occurred on July 4, 2020, when he was at his aunt's house in Rialto, California -- about 10 miles north of Riverside -- for a block party, he said. Fireworks were lit for the holiday, with one of them exploding onto the ground instead of shooting up in the air, he told ABC News. The 28-year-old said the sparks "came into the crowd on both sides of the street," with Kharufeh getting a direct hit in his left eye. He approached his dad and said, "Hey, I can't see out of my left eye," but the damage couldn't be examined because it was dark outside. Kharufeh went inside to show his mom, who took one look at him and passed out, he said. "I was like, 'You know what, this is bad,'" Khaurfeh told ABC News. Once he arrived at the hospital, doctors told Kharufeh they would need to "remove whatever was left" of his eye. But a specialist later discovered his eye was still intact, and would not need to be taken out. MORE: Robin Roberts marks 12 years since 'GMA' return after stem cell transplant "He decided, 'You can keep it, it's probably very risky. You're never going to see out of it again, but it's there,'" Kharufeh said. "When I heard that, I felt a sigh of relief. I knew I might not be able to see perfectly fine out of it, but I knew I could keep it and see if anything ever came up." He said he received a second opinion from another hospital, who confirmed his eye was intact, but they emphasized to Kharufeh that "there's not really any procedures that can fix that." Kharufeh, who was 23 at the time, moved back home with his parents and tried to hide his injury from the world. "I didn't even look at myself in the mirror. I didn't tell any of my friends about it for months," Kharufeh said. But in September 2020, his mom found out about a clinical trial in Boston for a first-of-its-kind operation that could potentially restore Kharufeh's cornea and bring back his vision. The trial was held at Mass Eye and Ear, an international center for treatment that is a member of Mass General Brigham and a teaching hospital for Harvard Medical School. "When I found out Mass Eye and Ear could help me, or that they were at least willing to try, it was a huge weight lifted off my chest," Kharufeh said. "I was willing to give up my whole life to come out here." The treatment, called a cultivated autologous limbal epithelial cell transplantation -- or CALEC -- can help restore surface corneal epithelial cells, which can be destroyed after chemical burns, infections or other injuries, according to Dr. Ula Jurkunas, an ophthalmologist and associate director of the cornea service at Mass Eye and Ear who performed Kharufeh's surgery. "This is the first stem cell trial in the cornea in the U.S., and is paving the way for further treatments of this sort," Jurkunas told ABC News. When the cells are depleted in the cornea, patients can then experience painful blindness and a loss of vision, Jurkunas said. Restoring those stem cells by growing them in a lab can treat the cell deficiency that gives rise to corneal blood vessel growth, cloudiness and pain, Jurkunas said. Jurkunas said the transplant involves taking a small biopsy from a healthy eye, extracting the stem cells in a lab, growing them to a sheet of cells that can "later be transplanted onto the patient's diseased eye." MORE: Paralyzed man who can walk again shows potential benefit of stem cell therapy Kharufeh said his biopsy occurred in January 2021 and his transplant was completed the next month. In the years after the operation, Kharufeh said his vision is restored to about 50% of what it was before. He added that his pain has vanished and the appearance of his eye "looks a lot more normal." "I couldn't work for a couple of years; I couldn't meet new people. So [I am] very happy with where it's at now," Kharufeh said. Out of the 14 trial participants, about 92% were able to have a restoration of the corneal surface at 12 to 18 months post-operation, and 72% experienced vision improvement, Jurkunas said. After the knowledge gained from this trial, Jurkunas said this operation could be available for "many more patients" and hopes to develop a way to treat those with bilateral eye injuries. Kharufeh said he hopes that as more people learn about the CALEC procedure, it will become a mainstream form of treatment and "the next big thing" for patients with eye injuries. "Fourth of July is not going away, fireworks are not going away, so [these injuries are] going to keep happening," Kharufeh said. "Being able to see again, look at yourself in the mirror and look like you is just so impactful." Kharufeh said he will run the Boston Marathon in April for Mass Eye and Ear to raise money for those wanting to have the CALEC procedure. Stem cell transplant restores vision in patient who was blinded in left eye after injury originally appeared on
Yahoo
09-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
'In that moment, that was everything to me': Patient describes joy of regaining vision in 1 eye after new stem cell therapy
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. On Independence Day 2020, Nick Kharufeh was enjoying a fireworks display on the street near his aunt's house in California. Then, within a split second, the fun stopped. A wayward firework meandered off course and exploded on the ground near Kharufeh, and bits of the explosive struck the cornea of his left eye. The accident left Kharufeh — who was 23 years old, and six years into training to be a commercial pilot at the time — completely blind in one eye. "My dad was right outside [the house] and it was dark out, so he couldn't fully tell what had happened," Kharufeh told Live Science. "And I was like, 'I feel like I can't see out of my left eye.'" Related: Gene-therapy drops restore teen's vision after genetic disease left his eyes clouded with scars At the hospital, doctors initially feared that Kharufeh's eye had been completely destroyed and would need to be taken out. However, after cleaning the debris from his eye, a specialist saw that aside from his cornea, the rest of Kharufeh's eye remained intact. What followed was months of treatments, involving waking up multiple times in the night to apply medicated eye drops, taking drugs to manage the pain, and undergoing a couple of surgeries, which included cleaning up the remaining debris and an unsuccessful attempt at reconstructing his eyelid. "It was a rough few months," Kharufeh said. "I didn't leave the house, I didn't tell anybody what happened because I was kind of embarrassed about it — because your eyes are the window to your soul, so I felt like my identity was just gone." Later that year, Kharufeh's mom told him about an advertisement she'd seen from the Mass Eye and Ear, a Harvard teaching hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. The hospital was seeking volunteers to participate in a clinical trial of a new stem cell therapy for patients with irreversible corneal damage. The experimental therapy — called "cultivated autologous limbal epithelial cell transplantation" (CALEC) — works by taking stem cells from a patient's healthy eye, growing them into sheets of cells in the lab and then transplanting them into the damaged eye. Once implanted, these new sheets of cells form a surface on which normal tissue can grow back. Kharufeh decided to make the move to Boston with his mom to take part in the trial, which was starting the following January in 2021. "At first I was hesitant because they had to do surgery on my good eye, so I was really nervous," Kharufeh said. But then, immediately after the first of two transplants, Kharufeh saw positive results. He remembers the moment when he walked into his Airbnb in Massachusetts and could see the bright blue color of his comforter. At that time, he was about eight months out from his firework injury. Image 1 of 2 Image 2 of 2 Nick's eye approximately two years after receiving his first stem cell transplant at Mass Eye and Ear. "I'll never forget [that moment]," Kharufeh said. "And it sounds so little. It's just like, 'Okay, a little blue comforter.' But in that moment that was everything to me, and I literally cried for so long." Prior to Kharufeh receiving the new CALEC therapy, the treatment had initially been tested in a small clinical trial of just four patients with corneal damage. That trial, whose results were shared in 2018, marked the first-ever test of a stem cell therapy for the eyes in the U.S., the research team said at the time. After the small trial demonstrated the therapy's safety and efficacy, the team conducted a larger trial with 15 patients, one of whom was Kharufeh. The findings of the larger trial were published March 4 in the journal Nature Communications, and overall, the treatment was found to be effective at repairing blinding damage to the cornea in 93% of the patients involved. Follow-up trials are still to come and could ensure the treatment's official approval. Now, at age 28 and five years out from his injury, Kharufeh still lives in Boston where he works in sales for a travel company. The vision from his left eye is not perfect, but he says that the injury doesn't cause him issues during his everyday life. For instance, if he were to cover his right eye with his hand, he would still be able to locate objects and navigate himself around. RELATED STORIES —A dozen squirming fly larvae cause man's 'itchy eye' —Blind people could 'see' letters that scientists drew on their brains with electricity —Nerve damage in cornea could be sign of 'long COVID,' study hints In April, he intends to run the Boston Marathon to help raise money for Mass Eye and Ear. "I think it's given me a whole new life," Kharufeh said of the stem-cell therapy. "Now it's the point where I can actually feel normal."
Yahoo
05-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Breakthrough stem cell therapy repairs cornea damage once deemed untreatable
Sight-robbing injuries to the cornea can be repaired using a groundbreaking experimental stem cell treatment, a new study shows. The cornea -- the clear outermost layer of the eye -- can become irreversibly damaged if injury or disease destroys its ability to regenerate new cells. In this new process, stem cells taken from a person's healthy eye can be used to rebuild the cornea in their damaged eye, researchers reported March 4 in the journal Nature Communications. The process has proven feasible and safe in 14 patients who were treated and followed for 18 months, early clinical trial results show. The treatment is called cultivated autologous limbal epithelial cells, or CALEC. "Our first trial in four patients showed that CALEC was safe and the treatment was possible," lead investigator Dr. Ula Jurkunas, associate director of the Cornea Service at Mass Eye and Ear in Boston, said in a news release. "Now we have this new data supporting that CALEC is more than 90% effective at restoring the cornea's surface, which makes a meaningful difference in individuals with cornea damage that was considered untreatable," she said. The outer border of the cornea, the limbus, contains many healthy stem cells called limbal epithelial cells, researchers explained in background notes. These cells constantly rebuild the cornea, keeping it clear and smooth. When a person's cornea is damaged, the injury can deplete the limbal epithelial cells. As a result, the surface of the eye develops permanent damage -- a condition called limbal stem cell deficiency. Worse, this damage can render the eye unfit for cornea replacement surgery, which replaces a damaged or diseased cornea with donor tissue, researchers said. CALEC involves removing stem cells from a healthy eye and then expanding them into a tissue graft using a new manufacturing process that takes two to three weeks, researchers explained. The graft is then surgically transplanted into the eye with a damaged cornea, restoring the cornea's ability to regenerate. CALEC completely restored the cornea in half of study participants within three months, and that rate of success increased to around 80% after a year and a half, results show. The overall success rate of CALEC came in around 90% when considering those who achieved partial recovery, researchers said. The procedure also proved safe, with no serious adverse events occurring in either the donor or the damaged eye of the patients, researchers said. The procedure is still experimental, and further clinical trials will be needed before CALEC is submitted for federal approval, researchers said. "We feel this research warrants additional trials that can help lead towards [U.S. Food and Drug Administration] approval," Jurkunas said. In the meantime, researchers hope to refine the procedure. For example, now a person must still have one healthy eye to serve as a stem cell donor to the damaged eye. Researchers eventually want to be able to perform the procedure using stem cells taken from the eyes of deceased donors. "This will hopefully expand the use of this approach and make it possible to treat patients who have damage to both eyes," researcher Dr. Jerome Ritz, executive director of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute's Cell Manipulation Core Facility, said in a news release. More information The American Academy of Ophthalmology has more on limbal stem cell deficiency. SOURCE: Mass General Brigham, news release, March 4, 2025 Copyright © 2025 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
