Use of the Diet History Questionnaire III to determine the impact of dysosmia on dietary quality.

Background: Dysosmia could alter dietary quality through mechanisms including changes in appetite, food choice, and subsequent nutritional intake. However, there are few studies that directly assess olfactory performance and dietary quality. In this pilot study, we aimed to measure dietary quality in patients with dysosmia compared with controls with normosmia.

Endocrine mucin-producing sweat gland carcinoma: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background: Endocrine mucin-producing sweat gland carcinoma is a rare, under-reported cutaneous adnexal tumor that is often misdiagnosed and has an unknown incidence of metastasis.

Objective: To determine the incidence of metastasis and tumor recurrence, as well as diagnostic accuracy and current trends in treatment modality.

Methods: A search was performed following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines.

Endoscopic repair of spontaneous skull base defects decreases the incidence rate of intracranial complications.

Background: Spontaneous skull base defects can result in life-threatening intracranial complications (ICCs), including meningitis and pneumocephalus. Endoscopic skull base reconstruction (ESBR) has traditionally been the treatment of choice, but its impact upon ICCs is not known. In this study, we aimed to describe the incidence rate of preoperative ICCs in patients with spontaneous skull base defects, risk factors associated with ICC development, and the impact of surgical repair on the incidence rate of ICCs.

Treatment Outcomes of Bilateral Medialization Thyroplasty for Presbylaryngis.

Background: Presbylaryngis is a common cause of dysphonia in elderly patients. Type I thyroplasty serves to improve glottic closure and vocal quality by correcting bowing. Although unilateral and injection-based procedures are well-characterized in the treatment of broadly defined glottic insufficiency, there are insufficient outcomes data for bilateral medialization thyroplasty in the treatment of presbylaryngis.

Secondary free-flap reconstruction following ablation for acute invasive fungal sinusitis.

Objective: Acute invasive fungal sinusitis (AIFS) is a frequently fatal infection for which extensive and debilitating surgical debridement is a mainstay of therapy. Resulting defects are often composite in nature, mandating free tissue-transfer reconstruction. Outcomes data for free flap reconstruction are limited.

Bilateral vocal fold paralysis and dysphagia secondary to diffuse idiopathic skeletal hyperostosis.

Background: Diffuse idiopathic skeletal hyperostosis (DISH) is an idiopathic spinal disease common in the elderly and characterized by flowing ossification and osteophyte formation along the spinal column. Cervical hyperostosis is capable of producing dysphagia, stridor, and airway obstruction; however, there are no extant reports of true paralysis of bilateral vocal folds in patients fulfilling the criteria for DISH.

Methods And Results: We report a case of a 61-year-old man presenting with dysphagia and dyspnea.

High-grade malignant transformation of a radiation-naïve nasopharyngeal angiofibroma.

Background: Nasopharyngeal angiofibromas are typically considered benign vascular neoplasms, with descriptions of high-grade sarcomatous change found only in lesions with prior radiotherapy.

Methods And Results: We describe the first reported case of high-grade malignant change in a nasopharyngeal angiofibroma naive to radiation. A 45-year-old man presented with left-sided nasal congestion and fullness and was found to have a left-sided nasopharyngeal mass with intracranial extension on CT scan.

Endotoxemia-mediated inflammation potentiates aminoglycoside-induced ototoxicity.

The ototoxic aminoglycoside antibiotics are essential to treat severe bacterial infections, particularly in neonatal intensive care units. Using a bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS) experimental model of sepsis, we tested whether LPS-mediated inflammation potentiates cochlear uptake of aminoglycosides and permanent hearing loss in mice. Using confocal microscopy and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays, we found that low-dose LPS (endotoxemia) greatly increased cochlear concentrations of aminoglycosides and resulted in vasodilation of cochlear capillaries without inducing paracellular flux across the blood-labyrinth barrier (BLB) or elevating serum concentrations of the drug.

Aberrant interleukin-1 signalling does not increase susceptibility of mice to NOD2-dependent uveitis.

Background: NOD2 is the genetic cause of Blau syndrome, an autoinflammatory disease that manifests as coincident uveitis and arthritis. Since dysregulation of IL-1 signalling is considered a pathogenic mechanism in a number of related autoinflammatory conditions, we examined the extent to which unimpeded interleukin (IL)-1 signalling influences NOD2-dependent inflammation of the eye versus the joint.

Methods: Mice deficient for IL-1R antagonist (IL-1Ra) were administered the NOD2 agonist muramyl dipeptide (MDP) by systemic (intraperitoneal) or local (intraocular and/or intra-articular) injections.

Investigation of the peptidoglycan sensing molecule, PGLYRP-2, in murine inflammatory uveitis.

Background/aim: Peptidoglycan (PGN) recognition proteins (PGLYRPs) are innate immune molecules that recognise bacterial cell wall PGN, and participate in several inflammatory diseases such as arthritis. We sought to elucidate the contribution of PGLYRPs in murine uveitis (intraocular inflammatory disease) elicited by PGN, and the extent to which systemically administered PGN alters uveitis compared with arthritis versus locally triggered ocular responses.

Methods: Mice deficient for PGLYRP-2, PGLYRP-3 or PGLYRP-4 were administered PGN by an intraperitoneal or intraocular injection.

Investigation of the differential potentials of TLR agonists to elicit uveitis in mice.

TLRs are critical for host defense and innate immunity. Emerging evidence also supports a role for TLRs in many chronic inflammatory diseases, including inflammatory eye disease, known as uveitis. The activation of TLR4 by endotoxin induces a standard model of murine uveitis.