SLC26A4 and deafness: Of all the patients evaluated in our study with non-syndromic hearing loss (NSHL), well-known mutations in four deafness-associated genes (GJB2, GJB3, 12S rRNA, and SLC26A4) were only detected in 8.7% (11/127) of the patients [7], suggesting that unappreciated genetic abnormalities may contribute to hearing loss diseases.