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Keywords
Mitochondrial DNA; A1555G; Mutation; Non-syndromic sensorineural deafness; Greece
Introduction
Materials and methods
We recruited unrelated individuals suffering from hearing impairment of any degree who LY2109761 were referred to our Department for molecular analysis from all the major childhood deafness centers of Greece, from 1999 until 2009. For the present study, we used an extensive questionnaire in order to exclude cases with syndromic deafness, unilateral or mixed hearing loss, otosclerosis, history of infections during pregnancy, bacterial meningitis, need of neonatal mechanical ventilation, or history of head trauma associated with skull fracture or loss of consciousness. We also excluded cases of incomplete clinical history and the dendrites cases with patients of non-Greek origin. Finally, our cohort consisted of 478 unrelated Greek patients with sensorineural, bilateral, non-syndromic hearing loss of any degree. The study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Institute of Child Health, Athens, Greece.