Interrater variation of vascular classifications used in enhanced laryngeal contact endoscopy.

Purpose: Combined use of contact endoscopy (CE) and Narrow Band Imaging (NBI, Olympus) is suggested for the visualization of specific vascular changes indicative of glottic neoplasia. We investigated the interrater reliability and agreement in 3 recognized classification systems of vascular changes applied to images from CE + NBI in patients suspected for glottic neoplasia.

Methods: Six experienced head and neck surgeons familiar with NBI rated 120 images obtained by CE + NBI by 3 classification systems of vascular changes as suggested by Ni et al.

[Fusobacterium necrophorum--cause of a mastoiditis with skull- and mandibular joint osteomyelitis].

Background: The typical clinical manifestation of an infection with the obligate anaerobic, gram-negative, rod-shaped bacteria Fusobacterium necrophorum is the Lemierre syndrome. As the cause of osteomyelitis and mastoiditis factors of the normal bacteria flora are more likely to be found than Fusobacterium necrophorum. Nevertheless, Necrobacillosis is an important differential diagnosis of complicated courses of mastoiditis.

Retention of the arginine allele in codon 72 of the p53 gene correlates with poor apoptosis in head and neck cancer.

The allele constitution at codon 72 of the p53 gene (CGC-arginine or CCC-proline) plays a major role in inducing apoptosis in p53 mutant cells. To verify this, we determined GC-status, p53-mutations, and p53-loss of heterozygosity (LOH) in a group of 54 squamous cell carcinomas of the head and neck (SCCHN). A novel approach, using a one-step real-time PCR analysis with fluorescent hybridization probes, was applied to detect the GC status in tumors and corresponding blood samples.

[Biallelic inactivation of the p16-Gen in a metachronous triple carcinoma in the oropharyngeal region].

Aims: Recent studies have shown that most Dutch families with atypical multiple-mole melanoma (FAMMM) have a 19-bp deletion (p16-Leiden) in exon 2 of the p16 gene. Apart from reports on metachronous pancreatic tumors, other cancer types have never been described in such families. Due to heterozygous p16-Leiden constitution, our proband with multiple head and neck carcinomas was a suitable model for studying the type of p16 inactivation according to the Knudson-two-hit model.