Paraneoplastic syndrome: a masquerade of autoimmune inner ear disease.

Rare and diagnostically challenging, paraneoplastic syndromes can appear months to years before detection of their underlying neoplasms and are associated with rapidly progressive neurologic deficits, including cochleovestibulopathy and death. Less than 20 cases of paraneoplastic cochleovestibulopathy have been reported in the online database PubMed. We present three recent cases: one patient with a history of B-cell follicular lymphoma who developed dermatomyositis and hearing loss before detection of lymphoma recurrence in his anterior chest wall, a second patient with sudden asymmetric hearing loss, found to have a 12-cm renal mass before death, and a third with fluctuating bilateral hearing loss who was ultimately found to have a thymoma.

Radiofrequency cartilage reshaping: efficacy, biophysical measurements, and tissue viability.

Objectives: To assess the feasibility of reshaping cartilage using radiofrequency (RF) heating, and to examine the effects of this process on tissue biophysical properties (optical and thermal) and cellular viability.

Methods: Mechanically deformed porcine septal cartilage was reshaped using 2 RF-generating devices. We performed dynamic measurements of tissue thermal and optical properties while heating cartilage with one of these devices.