Testing for Hearing Loss in Acadian Families

 

Aug. 31, 2001

  My name is Kelly Rose, and I am a research audiologist working with the Kresge Hearing Research Lab, part of the department of Otorhinolaryngology and Biocommunication, at LSU's Health Sciences Center in New Orleans, Louisiana. 

We are currently working a study of hereditary hearing loss. This study examines both the genetics of hearing loss and the effects on the auditory system. We work with three main groups of people: families with Usher, families with a located, specific genetic defect called Conexin, and families that have two or more hearing impaired children with normal hearing parents and an unidentified genetic defect.  We hope that by learning how the defective genes are affecting the auditory system we can one day treat with gene therapy. We are working with Dr. Bronya Keats in genetics on this study.

This brings me to my request:
We have a great number of families of Acadian ancestry in our study.
They fall into the "experimental" category, which is to say they carry one of the genes we are studying. We are looking for normal hearing control subjects of Acadian ancestry to match to the results of the experimental subjects.

We try to match experimental subjects and control subjects for age, race, and gender to get as genetically similar as we can. That way, we have a more accurate comparison.  The term normal hearing means that a person should have good hearing, we would test it, and that they have no history of prolonged noise exposure, no chronic middle ear problems, or family members
with hearing loss from birth or hearing loss caused by disease. (Hearing loss from aging is okay).

Would you be willing to help us get the word out by posting a notice in your newsletter? We primarily test at our facility in New Orleans, but, if several people were willing to be tested at a time, we could travel to another town.

Volunteer subjects will be compensated for their time. The whole testing takes about 3 hours- sometimes 3 1/2. It can be broken down into smaller sessions- an hour at a time or so. It is noninvasive- we don't use needles.

It involves a hearing test, and a lot of rather boring listening to
beeps and clicks. I advise people to bring a book for some of the testing. If someone completes the testing we pay $30.00 and we can compensate for mileage and parking.  Even partial testing would help, and we could compensate at $10.00 an hour.

I've tried to cover all the basics. If you have any questions please
call me at 504-568-4785, or e-mail:  KRose@LSUHSC.EDU. I would appreciate any recommendations you might have as to how I can reach other people that might be interested.

Thank you for taking the time to read this. I look forward to hearing
from you.

Sincerely,
Kelly Rose, MA, CF/A

LSU Health Sciences Center
Kresge Hearing Research Lab
533 Bolivar Street, 5th Floor
New Orleans, LA  70112

E-Mail:  KRose@LSUHSC.EDU
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