BMC Ear, Nose and Throat Disorders最新文献

Background: Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs) represent the most valuable study design to evaluate the effectiveness of therapeutic interventions. However, flaws in design, conduct, analysis, and reporting of RCTs can cause the effect of an intervention to be under- or overestimated. These biased RCTs may be included in literature reviews. To make the assessment of Risk of Bias (RoB) consistent and transparent, Cochrane published a RoB tool, with which RoB is assessed per item as "low", "unclear" or "high". Our objective was to provide an overview of RoB assessments of RCTs in otorhinolaryngology over time, and to identify items where improvement is still warranted.

Methods: We retrieved Cochrane reviews in the otorhinolaryngologic research field published in 2012 and 2013. We used all judgments per item as assessed by the review authors of the included RCTs. We evaluated the association between "low RoB" vs. "unclear and high RoB" and the year of publication (time strata: '<1990', '1990-1995', '1996-2000', '2001-2005', '2006-2012') per item using binary logistic regression.

Results: We extracted the RoB assessments from 42 Cochrane reviews that had included 402 RCTs (median number of RCTs per review: 7, range 1-40). In total 2,356 items were assessed (mean number of assessed items per RCT: 5.9, standard deviation 1.8). On binary logistic regression, RCTs published in 2006-2012, compared with those published before 1990, were more likely to have a low RoB for two items: random sequence generation (odds ratio 6.09 [95% confidence interval: 3.11-11.95]) and allocation concealment (3.59 [1.87-6.90]). On all other items, there was no significant increase in the proportion of low RoB when comparing RCTs published in 2006-2012 with RCTs published before 1990.

Conclusion: Although there were some positive developments in the RoB assessments in otorhinolaryngology, a further decrease in RoB is still warranted on several items. Currently, biased RCTs are included in Cochrane reviews and effects of therapeutic interventions can be under- or overestimated, with implications for clinical patient care.

Background: Use of petroleum-based over the counter remedies such as Vicks VapoRub to alleviate symptoms of rhinitis is common and can be effective, but carries under-appreciated risks of adverse side effects. In this case report we highlight Exogenous Lipoid Pneumonia (ELP), an uncommon condition that results from accumulation of exogenous lipids in the alveoli, as an adverse side effect of long-term Vicks VapoRub use.

Case presentation: We present the case of an 85-year-old female patient with ELP apparently due to continuous application of Vicks VapoRub® to her nostrils to alleviate chronic rhinitis. She was diagnosed incidentally via chest radiograph and computed tomography (CT) scan done as follow up to finding elevated C-reactive Protein during a routine exam. The CT scan revealed a pulmonary consolidation in the lower lobe of the right lung with fat density combined with low density areas associated with focal ground-glass opacities. The patient was advised to discontinue use of petroleum-based products, and was prescribed intranasal corticosteroids for her rhinitis. Follow up 2 years later showed that the lipid consolidation had diminished in size by approximately 10 %.

Conclusion: Physicians must be aware that ELP can develop as a result of long-term application of petroleum-based oils and ointments to the nose and discourage such use of these products. Patients who have used petroleum-based products in this way should be screened for ELP. CT scan is the best imaging modality for establishing the diagnosis. The treatment of this condition is not well defined, but, as shown in this case, the size of the lipid mass can decrease after use of petroleum based substances is discontinued.

Chronic rhinosinusitis has a significant impact on health-related and generic quality-of-life, has a high cost burden to both society and patients, and may be associated with absenteeism, loss of productivity and poor respiratory function. Though there is a paucity of level 1 evidence, endoscopic sinus surgery may be considered in medically refractory patients and a variety of objective and subjective outcome measures exist to assess the effectiveness of intervention. We outline the outcome measurements available and review in-depth the published outcomes to date. Furthermore we discuss the literature that indicates that endoscopic sinus surgery can have a positive effect on respiratory function in asthma. How patient selection, timing and extent of surgery, and post-operative care interventions may optimise surgical outcomes is explored.

Background: Chronic tinnitus affects 5 % of the population, 17 % suffer under the condition. This distress seems mainly to be dependent on negative cognitive-emotional evaluation of the tinnitus and selective attention to the tinnitus. A well-established paradigm to examine selective attention and emotional processing is the Emotional Stroop Task (EST). Recent models of tinnitus distress propose limbic, frontal and parietal regions to be more active in highly distressed tinnitus patients. Only a few studies have compared high and low distressed tinnitus patients. Thus, this study aimed to explore neural correlates of tinnitus-related distress.

Methods: Highly distressed tinnitus patients (HDT, n = 16), low distressed tinnitus patients (LDT, n = 16) and healthy controls (HC, n = 16) underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during an EST, that used tinnitus-related words and neutral words as stimuli. A random effects analysis of the fMRI data was conducted on the basis of the general linear model. Furthermore correlational analyses between the blood oxygen level dependent response and tinnitus distress, loudness, depression, anxiety, vocabulary and hypersensitivity to sound were performed.

Results: Contradictory to the hypothesis, highly distressed patients showed no Stroop effect in their reaction times. As hypothesized HDT and LDT differed in the activation of the right insula and the orbitofrontal cortex. There were no hypothesized differences between HDT and HC. Activation of the orbitofrontal cortex and the right insula were found to correlate with tinnitus distress.

Conclusions: The results are partially supported by earlier resting-state studies and corroborate the role of the insula and the orbitofrontal cortex in tinnitus distress.

Background: The purpose was to study hearing aid (HA) use in persons 65 years and older, and to investigate how socioeconomic and hearing related factors were associated to use of HA.

Method: This study included 11,602 persons (65 years and above) from the second Nord-Trøndelag Health Study (HUNT2) and the integrated North-Trøndelag hearing loss study (NTHLS) in 1995-1997. Audiometry was taken of all participants. Missing information about use of HA in possible users of HA existed in data from 1103 (9.5 %) of the participants. Effects of sociodemographic variables, low, medium and high frequency hearing thresholds and being bothered by their hearing were explored in men and women, adjusting the effects for each other. Cross tabulations and logistic regression analyses were used.

Results: In all, 14 % (1472 of 10,499) were users of HA, but 62 % had a mean hearing impairment (HI) based on 0.5, 1, 2, 4 kHz over both ears >25 dB. Use of HA was associated with higher education. Adjusting for all covariates and hearing variables, each 10 dB medium frequency threshold shift increased the chance of HA-use by a factor of two-three in both men and women. Having reported being bothered by hearing loss additionally increased the chance around sevenfold. Low frequency hearing thresholds were not associated with HA-use in women. In men, low frequency hearing thresholds up to 50 dB increased odds for use of HA, but low frequency hearing thresholds ≥ 70 dB decreased odds for use of HA. Men living with a spouse had higher odds for using HA compared to men without a spouse. For women there is no difference between those with and without spouse in use of HA. Men and women without spouse did not differ in their use of HA.

Conclusions: About two third of 65 years and older participants had a HI higher than 25 dB, but only one seventh used HA. Use of HA was associated with higher than basic education. Men without a spouse were less likely to use HA compared to men with a spouse.

Background: Severe dysphagia may occur in the immune mediated necrotizing myopathies (IMNM). Neck swelling and severe dysphagia as the initial symptoms upon presentation has not been previously described.

Case presentation: A 55-year-old male with a 4 week history of neck swelling, fatigue, dysphagia, myalgias, night sweats, and cough was admitted for an elevated CK. He underwent extensive infectious and inflammatory evaluation including neck imaging and muscle biopsy. Neck CT and MRI showed inflammation throughout his strap muscles, retropharyngeal soft tissues and deltoids. Infectious work up was negative. Deltoid muscle biopsy demonstrated evidence of IMNM. Lab tests revealed anti-3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-coenzyme A reductase (HMGCR) antibodies confirming the diagnosis of HMGCR IMNM.

Conclusions: HMGCR IMNM is a rare and incompletely understood disease process. Awareness of HMGCR IMNM could potentially lead to earlier diagnosis, treatment and improved clinical outcomes as disease progression can be rapid and severe.