Amyloidosis of the middle ear in a chronically hemodialyzed patient.

We report a 24-year-old woman on chronic hemodialysis for 7 years in whom investigations for an acute hearing loss revealed a serous otitis media. Tissue obtained at bilateral tympanotomy contained amyloid, which proved to be sensitive to potassium permanganate. This finding may indicate that amyloidosis in hemodialyzed patients is more common than initially thought.

Pyogenic thyroiditis due to branchial pouch sinus.

Suppurative thyroiditis due to branchial pouch sinus is a rare disease, affecting children and young adults. It presents as an abscess in the lower lateral neck, usually on the left side. Suppurative thyroiditis can be suggested by ultrasound, radionuclide scintigraphy or CT scan, but the diagnosis can only be established by barium swallow showing the sinus from the apex of the pyriform sinus to the perithyroid region.

Phlebectasia of the jugular system.

Developmental anomalies of the internal jugular system are rare. Phlebectasia of the jugular system is an abnormal fusiform dilatation which is seldom described in the literature. We present five cases of jugular phlebectasia in the neck.

Auditory brain stem response in experimentally induced hypothyroidism in albino rats.

In order to elucidate the relationship between the auditory function and the thyroid state, experiments were designed to study the effect of hypothyroidism on the onset of auditory brain stem response (ABR) in 26 adult myxedematous albino rats. A state of hypothyroidism was induced by daily oral administration of 6-N-propyl-2-thiouracil (PTU). In 23 out of 26 rats we found minor changes in the amplitudes of all ABR waves without any correlation with the rats' T4 variation.

Metastatic carcinoma of oral soft tissue.

Metastatic carcinomas to the oral region are rare. Most of the lesions are located in the bones of the jaw. The medical literature contains quite a few examples of metastatic lesions located strictly in the oral soft tissue.