Streptomycin Sulfate and Dihydrostreptomycin Toxicity: Behavioral and Histopathologic Studies

Abstract

FOREWORD I have had the opportunity of observing this experiment from its inception to its conclusion and have had the privilege of examining the temporal bone sections with Dr. McGee and the brain stem sections with Dr. Olszewski. There are several important features in the design of the experiment: (1) Tests of auditory and vestibular function were made before and after drug administration; (2) after drug administration, the animals were permitted long survival; (3) untreated control animals were included in the study; (4) histological evaluations of the brains were made without protocols of treatment or knowledge of functional test data; (5) the pathological changes in the ears were quantified by graphic reconstructions and by cell population estimates. Because vestibular "habituation" can result from the turning tests used to study vestibular function, I performed a control experiment on 3 normal cats using the same turn-table which was used in this experiment.