Chronic cough in post-COVID syndrome: Laryngeal electromyography findings in vagus nerve neuropathy.

Background: Despite being a new entity, there is a large amount of information on the characteristics of SARS-CoV-2 infection and the symptoms of the acute phase; however, there are still many unknowns about the clinical features and pathophysiology of post-COVID syndrome. Refractory chronic cough is one of the most prevalent symptoms and carries both a medical problem and a social stigma. Many recent studies have highlighted the role of SARS-CoV-2 neurotropism, but no studies have demonstrated vagus nerve neuropathy as a cause of persistent chronic cough or other COVID-19 long-term effects.

Audiological evaluation (128-20,000Hz) in women with autoimmune thyroiditis: The role of antibodies vs. l-thyroxine deficiency.

Background And Aim: Although sensorineural hearing loss may have different aetiologies, we focused on autoimmune hearing loss since it may be reversible with corticosteroid therapy; this entity is sometimes associated with systemic autoimmune diseases. Hashimoto's thyroiditis or chronic autoimmune thyroiditis shows antibodies and may be harmful to hearing thresholds regardless of hypothyroidism effect. To date this effect has not been sufficiently studied and never with extended high frequencies.

Phenotypic Characterization of Laryngospasm: The Utility of Laryngeal Neurophysiological Studies.

Objective: To determine the existence of laryngeal neuropathy and the influence of gastroesophageal reflux in patients with episodic laryngospasm.

Study Design: Single -center, observational study with prospective clinical collection.

Study Setting: Prospective analysis of 18 Spanish patients with episodic laryngospasm in a Spanish Public Center collected by otolaryngologist.

Utility and limitations of metabolic parameters in head and neck cancer: finding a practical segmentation method.

Purpose: Although metabolic tumor volume (MTV) and total lesion glycolysis (TLG) have shown good prognostic value in head and neck cancer (HNC), there are still many issues to resolve before their potential application in standard clinical practice. The purpose of this study was to compare the discrimination ability of two relevant segmentation methods in HNC and to evaluate the potential benefit of adding lymph nodes' metabolism (LNM) to the measurements.

Methods: We retrospectively analyzed a recently published database of 62 patients with HNC treated with chemoradiotherapy.

Adding value to tumor staging in head and neck cancer: The role of metabolic parameters as prognostic factors.

Background: Validated biomarkers in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) are scarce.

Methods: We retrospectively analyzed 62 patients with HNSCC treated with radiotherapy +/- concurrent chemotherapy. Pretreatment metabolic tumor volume (MTV) and total lesion glycolysis (TLG) were measured in a F-FDG positron emission tomography using a liver dependent standardized uptake value threshold.

Cerebellar gangliocytoma as a cause of fluctuating hearing loss.

Cerebellar lesions could be a cause of fluctuating hearing loss, due to the increase of intracranial pressure by partially or complete blocking of the Foramen of Luschka. Patients with intracranial hypertension may present audio-vestibular symptoms. Fluctuating sensorineural hearing loss may be the manifestation of different inner ear disorders such as Meniere's disease (MD), immune-mediated inner ear disease (IMIED), otosyphilis, and labyrinthine fistula including semicircular canal dehiscence.

Metabolic tumor volume and total lesion glycolysis as prognostic factors in head and neck cancer: Systematic review and meta-analysis.

The role of metabolic tumor volume (MTV) and total lesion glycolysis (TLG) in head and neck cancer (HNC) prognosis is not well established. We conducted a systematic review focusing on MTV and TLG measured by F-FDG positron-emission tomography in HNC. Meta-analyses were developed, estimating hazard ratios (HRs) for overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS).

Prevalence of presbycusis in an otologically normal population.

Objective: Presbycusis or age-related hearing loss is a bilaterally symmetric sensorineural hearing loss associated exclusively with age, excluding any other causes of hearing loss. Presbycusis is very relevant because of its high prevalence, and its consequences (e.g.

l-Thyroxine does not prevent immunemediated sensorineural hearing loss in autoimmune thyroid diseases.

Objective: This is the first report dealing with immune-mediated inner ear disease (IMIED) hearing loss in a group of patients affected with autoimmune thyroid disease (AITD), whose treatment required corticosteroids, despite being treated with levothyroxine. Immunopathology linking the inner ear and the thyroid gland is also presented.

Patients: A total of 220 patients were selected with sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) of causes other than presbycusis.

Update on consensus on diagnosis and treatment of idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss.

Introduction: Idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss (ISSNHL) is a sudden, unexplained unilateral hearing loss.

Objectives: To update the Spanish Consensus on the diagnosis, treatment and follow-up of ISSNHL.

Material And Methods: After a systematic review of the literature from 1966 to March 2018, on MESH terms «(acute or sudden) hearing loss or deafness», a third update was performed, including 1508 relevant papers.

Azathioprine reduces the risk of audiometric relapse in immune-mediated hearing loss.

Introduction: Current schemes for treatment of immune-mediated hearing loss with sporadic short-course, low-dose corticosteroids, are insufficient.

Methods: To determine the role of azathioprine in the control of auditory impairment, a longitudinal, observational, descriptive study was performed with 20 patients treated with azathioprine (1.5-2.

Analysis of audiometric relapse-free survival in patients with immune-mediated hearing loss exclusively treated with corticosteroids.

Objective: To describe the results in terms of audiometric relapse-free survival and relapse rate in immunomediated hearing loss patients treated exclusively with corticosteroids.

Method: Retrospective study of patients with audiometric relapses, monitored from 1995 to 2014, in two centres of the Community of Madrid.

Results: We evaluated 31 patients with a mean age of 48.

Extended high frequency audiometry can diagnose sub-clinic involvement in a seemingly normal hearing systemic lupus erythematosus population.

Conclusions: Sensorineural hearing loss must be considered within the clinical picture of systemic lupus erythematosus. The results confirm the usefulness of extended high-frequency audiometry in the audiologic testing of these patients, enabling the possibility of modifying or applying a preventive treatment for a possible hearing loss.

Objectives: Hearing involvement is usually under-diagnosed with routine auditory examination.

Spontaneous Cannabinoid Receptor 2 (CB2) Expression in the Cochlea of Adult Albino Rat and Its Up-Regulation after Cisplatin Treatment.

We provide evidence for the presence of cannabinoid CB2 receptors in some cellular types of the cochlea of the adult albino rat. Cannabinoids and their receptors are increasingly being studied because of their high potential for clinical use. As a hyperspecialized portion of the peripheral nervous system, study of the expression and function of cannabinoid receptors in the hearing organ is of high interest.

Examination of Hearing in a Rheumatoid Arthritis Population: Role of Extended-High-Frequency Audiometry in the Diagnosis of Subclinical Involvement.

Objective. The aim of this study is to analyze the high-frequency hearing levels in patients with rheumatoid arthritis and to determine the relationship between hearing loss, disease duration, and immunological parameters. Materials and Methods.

Promising Technique for Facial Nerve Reconstruction in Extended Parotidectomy.

Introduction: Malignant tumors of the parotid gland account scarcely for 5% of all head and neck tumors. Most of these neoplasms have a high tendency for recurrence, local infiltration, perineural extension, and metastasis. Although uncommon, these malignant tumors require complex surgical treatment sometimes involving a total parotidectomy including a complete facial nerve resection.

Sudden hearing loss: National survey in Spain.

Introduction: The objective of our study was to identify the diagnostic and therapeutic approaches in the different ENT Departments of Spain with respect to sudden deafness. We wanted to establish a basis to help to create a new nation-wide consensus, unifying treatment, diagnostic and follow-up criteria for this disease.

Methods: We carried out an anonymous Internet survey, addressing Spanish ENT doctors nation-wide (n=2,029), gathering in 33 questions different aspects about diagnostic criteria, additional tests, treatment procedures and prognostic factors in sudden deafness, according to the different protocols and experience of the participants in the survey.

New prospects in the diagnosis and treatment of immune-mediated inner ear disease.

Autoimmune inner ear disease (AIED) represents a very fertile research field and the advancements in the understanding of this disease have a direct application not only in patients affected with this condition but also in other inner ear disorders that share the same injury mechanism, damage to the inner ear hair cells. AIED also presents many challenges that have still to be overcome. Firstly, access to the inner ear is limited, as many interventions such as biopsies can result in great irreversible damage.

Reactive oxygen species in apoptosis induced by cisplatin: review of physiopathological mechanisms in animal models.

Cisplatin is a highly effective chemotherapeutic agent but displays significant ototoxic side effects. The most prominent change seen in the cochlea after cisplatin administration consists of loss of outer hair cells. Several mechanisms are believed to mediate cisplatin-induced apoptosis: binding of cisplatin to guanine bases on DNA and the formation of inter- and intra-strand chain cross-linking, generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) with increased lipid peroxidation and Ca(2+) influx and, finally, inflammation mediated by cisplatin.

Patient-derived olfactory mucosa cells but not lung or skin fibroblasts mediate axonal regeneration of retinal ganglion neurons.

Although human olfactory mucosa derived cells (OMC) have been used in animal models and clinical trials with CNS repair purposes, the exact identity of these cells in culture with respect to their tissue of origin is not fully understood and their neuroregenerative capacity in vitro has not yet been demonstrated. In this study we have compared human OMC with human ensheathing glia from olfactory bulb (OB) and human fibroblasts from skin and lung. Our results indicate that these different cultured cell types exhibit considerable overlap of antigenic markers such that it is presently not possible to distinguish them immunocytochemically.

Central pontine myelinolysis as a cause of bilateral vocal fold immobility due to hyponatremia.

We report a patient admitted with severe dyspnea due to bilateral vocal fold immobility (BVFI), associated with hyponatremia and pneumonia that required emergency tracheotomy. Cerebral magnetic resonance imaging showed a pons lesion compatible with central pontine myelinolysis. Hyponatremia is thought to be caused by hypovolemia.

[Consensus on diagnosis and treatment of sudden hearing loss. Asociación Madrileña de ORL].

Idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss is an unexplained unilateral hearing loss with onset over a period of less than 72 hours, without other known otological diseases. We present a consensus on the diagnosis, treatment and follow-up of this disease, designed by AMORL, after a systematic review of the literature from 1966 to June 2010. Diagnosis of sudden sensorineural hearing loss is based on mandatory otoscopy, acoumetry, tonal audiometry, speech audiometry, and tympanometry.

[Results of 12 years of endoscopic dacryocystorhinostomy].

Introduction: Chronic inflammation of nasolacrimal duct determines obstruction of the lacrimal flow and is called chronic dacryocystitis. Endoscopic dacryocystorhinostomy (DCR) can solve this obstruction by opening the lacrimal sac directly to the nasal cavity, avoiding external scars in a simple, safe way.

Material And Method: We reviewed all cases operated using this technique between January 1996 and June 2008.

Ginkgo biloba extract (EGb761) protects against aging-related caspase-mediated apoptosis in rat cochlea.

Conclusions: EGb761 treatment has a significant benefit with an early and preventive effect, reversing the deleterious effect of aging in the integrity of the rat cochlea, even in the late stage of the rat lifespan.

Objectives: We previously reported a significant relationship between aging and apoptosis in the rat cochlea. This study was designed to investigate the effects of Ginkgo biloba leaf extract (EGb761) on age-associated cochlear caspase activation.