The muscular compliance of the auditory tube: a model-based survey.

Objectives: The role of the paratubal muscles, especially the medial pterygoid muscle, still is unclear. The aim of this study was to define the function of the medial pterygoid muscle concerning the muscular compliance of the auditory tube.

Methods: High-resolution cross-sectional T1 magnetic resonance imaging data of one of the authors' paratubal structures were used, a new functional 3-D model of the auditory tube and its related structures visualized by the Hamburg VOXEL-MAN digital image system.

Reduction of chromogranin B-like immunoreactivity in distinct subregions of the hippocampus from individuals with schizophrenia.

Synaptic disturbances may play a key role in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. This study was designed to further investigate possible synaptic alterations in the brains of chronic schizophrenic patients. Chromogranin B was applied as a marker for large dense core vesicles and synapsin I as a protein associated with the synaptic vesicle membrane.

[Occupational hazardous substance exposure and nutrition. Risk factors for mouth, pharyngeal and laryngeal carcinomas?].

Background And Objective: A case-control study was conducted to investigate occupational and other risk factors for squamous cell carcinoma of the oral cavity, the pharynx and the larynx. The study included 209 male cancer patients and 110 male control persons without known malignant disease, matched for age, alcohol consumption and tobacco consumption.

Patients/methods: Cases and controls were interviewed using a standardized questionnaire which has been used before in the Heidelberg case-control studies.

Angioneurotic edemas of the upper aerodigestive tract after ACE-inhibitor treatment.

There are rare cases in which inhibitors of the angiotensin-converting enzyme can cause an angioneurotic edema of the upper aerodigestive tract. The pathomechanism of this side effect depends on an interaction of the drug with hormones regulating vascular permeability, such as the kallikrein kinin system and the prostaglandin system. Angioedema is characterized by subcutaneous or submucosal swellings, which usually affect the lips, soft palate, tongue and larynx.

Cell proliferation and p27Kip1 expression in endophytic schneiderian papillomas.

Objective: To clarify epithelial cell proliferation and p27Kip1 expression along the stepwise histological changes from endophytic schneiderian papillomas to associated carcinomas.

Study Design: Retrospective investigation involved surgical specimens from 58 patients.

Methods: Immunohistochemical assessment involved the nuclear Ki67 antigen expressed in proliferating cells.

Human leukocyte antigens and prognosis in patients with head and neck cancer: results of a prospective follow-up study.

Background: Prognostic information is essential for optimal treatment of patients with head and neck cancer. We studied the relationship of class I and class II human leukocyte antigens (HLA) on prognosis in patients with head and neck cancer.

Methods: HLA-A, -B, -C and -DR antigens were determined in 209 patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the oral cavity, oropharynx, hypopharynx, or larynx.

Genotoxicity studies on permethrin, DEET and diazinon in primary human nasal mucosal cells.

Possible genotoxic effects exerted by three widely used pesticides, permethrin, N,N-diethyl-m-toluamide (DEET) and diazinon, in primary human nasal mucosal cells were investigated. Primary nasal mucosa cells were prepared from tissue biopsies taken from 21 patients who underwent nasal surgery. Cells were exposed to 0.

Deafness and renal tubular acidosis in mice lacking the K-Cl co-transporter Kcc4.

Hearing depends on a high K(+) concentration bathing the apical membranes of sensory hair cells. K(+) that has entered hair cells through apical mechanosensitive channels is transported to the stria vascularis for re-secretion into the scala media(). K(+) probably exits outer hair cells by KCNQ4 K(+) channels(), and is then transported by means of a gap junction system connecting supporting Deiters' cells and fibrocytes() back to the stria vascularis.

[Risk of postoperative hemorrhage in tonsillectomy. A comparison between general anesthesia and local anesthesia].

Background: Postoperative bleeding after tonsillectomy is still a life-threatening problem. The incidence of postoperative bleeding, as well as many factors (kind of surgery, hemostasic problems) affecting this risk have been investigated. A possible factor that has not been well studied is the used anaesthetic procedure.

Regulatory context is a crucial part of gene function.

Information about the time and place of gene transcription, which until recently was only possible by extensive experimental analysis, can now be predicted through in silico analysis. Using the human RANTES/CCL5 promoter, we show that organizational features of promoters derived from promoter sequences contain information about the spatial and temporal 'functional context' of expression.

Production rates of dihydrotestosterone in healthy men and women and in men with male pattern baldness: determination by stable isotope/dilution and mass spectrometry.

Production rates of dihydrotestosterone (DHT) were determined in healthy men (n = 8), in healthy women during the follicular phase of their menstrual cycle (n = 7), and in young men with male pattern baldness (n = 8) using the stable isotope dilution technique and mass spectrometry. [2,3,4-(13)C]DHT was infused for 10 h at doses of 15 microg/h (men) and 2 microg/h (women), and blood samples were obtained at 20-min intervals during the last 4 h of the observation period. Production rates estimated between April and June were 2.

Differentiation-related p53 protein expression in nondysplastic sinonasal inverted papillomas.

To clarify p53 protein expression in nondysplastic sinonasal inverted papillomas, archived surgical specimens from 19 patients were studied using immunohistochemistry. Staining results were compared between inverted papillomas and adjacent, nonpapillomatous nasal mucosa. Further, immunoreactivity was compared between columnar (respiratory), transitional (cuboidal), and squamous epithelium in inverted papillomas.

[The role of yaws in the serologic screening of treponematoses in blood donors in Martinique].

Using TPHA instead of VDRL for syphilis blood-screening since 1995 showed an important increase of positive blood donors in Martinique. Yaws, another treponema disease, has been present on the island until 1975-1980. Usual tests are unable to identify which type--venereal or non venereal--of treponema is involved.

Apoptosis signals in sporadic amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: an immunocytochemical study.

Sporadic amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (sALS) is a neurodegenerative disorder of unknown cause characterized by selective loss of both upper and lower motor neurons. Whether neuronal death in sALS is due to apoptosis has so far not been clarified. In this study, the expression and distribution patterns of pro- and anti-apoptotic bcl-2 family members as well as the executioner caspase-3 were investigated in post-mortem CNS tissue of eight sALS patients and seven age-matched controls.

Patterns of p21(waf1/cip1) expression in non-papillomatous nasal mucosa, endophytic sinonasal papillomas, and associated carcinomas.

Aims: To clarify p21(waf1/cip1) expression in sinonasal lesions.

Methods: Archived surgical specimens from 38 patients were investigated by means of immunohistochemistry. p21(waf1/cip1) staining was evaluated in the different layers of the epithelium.

Cytokeratin expression and epithelial differentiation in Warthin's tumour and its metaplastic (infarcted) variant.

Aims: Warthin's tumour is characterized by a bilayered columnar epithelium. Transformation into metaplastic (infarcted) Warthin's tumour includes squamous metaplasia of the epithelium along with regressive changes in the stroma. Misinterpretation of metaplastic Warthin's tumour for malignancy is a serious diagnostic pitfall.

[Genotoxic effect of the insecticides pentachlorophenol and lindane on human nasal mucosal epithelium].

Background And Objective: In numerous experimental and epidemiologic studies Pentachlorphenol (PCP) and Hexachlorcyclohexan (Lindane) have been shown to be of potential carcinogenic risk for human epithelial cells. In the past, these two substances have been used for both, military and non-military purposes, e.g.

Change of ultraviolet absorbance of sunscreens by exposure to solar-simulated radiation.

Regarding the outdoor behavior of the Caucasian population, modern sunscreens should provide high and broad-spectrum ultraviolet protection in the ultraviolet B as well as in the ultraviolet A range and should be photochemically stable for ultraviolet doses, which can be expected in solar radiation. At present an assessment of the photostability of suncare products is not a general requirement before marketing. In order to evaluate the photostability of suncare products we conducted an in vitro test and measured the spectral absorbance of 16 sunscreens before, and after exposure to increasing biologically weighted standard erythema doses (5, 12.

Chromogranins as markers of altered hippocampal circuitry in temporal lobe epilepsy.

Chromogranins are polypeptides which are widely expressed in the central nervous system. They are stored in dense core vesicles of nerve terminals, from where they are released upon stimulation. Using immunocytochemistry, we investigated the distribution of chromogranin A, chromogranin B, secretoneurin, and, for comparison, dynorphin in hippocampal specimens removed at routine surgery from patients with drug-resistant mesial temporal lobe epilepsy and in autopsy tissues from nonneurologically deceased subjects.

[Use and results of universal newborn hearing screening with ALGO portable device].

Background: Congenital hearing disorder, which has an occurrence of 1 in 1000 newborn babies, is a health problem that should be taken seriously. Once it has been discovered too late, it leads to lifelong language, intellectual, emotional and social problems. The aim of this project was the critical evaluation of a universal, ABR-based newborn hearing screening, looking at the specificity and the success of the method used as well as the organisational requirements and costs involved with this method.

Chemokine expression precedes inflammatory cell infiltration and chemokine receptor and cytokine expression during the initiation of murine lupus nephritis.

Lupus nephritis is characterized by immune complex deposition and inflammatory cell infiltration. Therefore, the initiation and progression of lupus nephritis in MRL/MpJ Fas(lpr/lpr) (MRL/lpr) mice were investigated, with a focus on the expression of several chemokines and chemokine receptors. Mice were monitored for proteinuria from 6 to 20 wk of age, and kidneys were examined every 2 wk by light microscopy, electron microscopy, and immunohistologic analyses.