Adenoid hypertrophy is known as the most common cause of nasal obstruction in children; thus, adenoidectomy with, or without, tonsillectomy is one of the most commonly performed surgical procedures in the paediatric population. Although many methods have been suggested, few studies have reported on how to assess adenoid size, pre-operatively. Acoustic rhinometry is an objective technique as well as a non-invasive method, which can be easily used in young children. This study confirmed that acoustic rhinometry is a non-invasive and objective technique for assessing the geometry of the nasal cavity and nasopharynx. Forty children were evaluated using symptomology, two different radiological measurements and acoustic rhinometry; the results were compared with endoscopic findings. Clinical symptoms and A/N ratio measured with Fujioka's method significantly correlated with the endoscopic assessment findings (r = 0.769 and 0.604 respectively). Significant increases in the cross-sectional area and volume of the nasopharynx were observed at the adenoid notch after adenoidectomy (p<0.005 andp<0.005, respectively). Acoustic rhinometry showed a high degree of correlation of which adenoid occupied the nasopharyngeal airway under endoscopic examination (r = 0.771). Thus, the study concluded that acoustic rhinometry can be as good an objective method for measuring adenoid sizes as endoscopy and can be used as one of the pre-operative examination tools for adenoidectomy.

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The presence of HLA class II alleles may be a useful genetic marker in forecasting a prognosis in Korean patients with sudden sensorineural hearing loss.

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Testosterones have beneficial effects not only on the modulation of expression of autoimmunity of B/W mice, but on other unrelated models such as autoimmune thyroiditis as well. This study was performed to evaluate the effect of testosterone in the treatment of immune-mediated sensorineural hearing loss (IMSNHL). To induce IMSNHL, 29 female Wistar rats were sensitized with bovine inner ear antigen three times weekly. Fourteen of 29 rats were injected subcutaneously three times a week with 250 microg of testosterone propionate from 1 week prior to the first sensitization to 1 week following the second booster sensitization. An auditory brain-stem response (ABR) test was performed prior to each antigen challenge and at 1, 2, 3, 4, 6 and 8 weeks following sensitization. On ABR testing, the testosterone-treated animals showed better results than the control animals with IMSNHL in the degree of hearing loss (10 to 20 dB vs. 10 to 40 dB) and incidence of hearing loss over 20 dB (25.0% vs. 53.3%). None of testosterone-treated animals showed a hearing loss over 20 dB, whereas 40% of the control animals with IMSNHL revealed hearing loss over 20 dB. These results suggest that testosterone propionate may be effective in the prevention of and early recovery from IMSNHL and may be used in the future as a one treatment modality for IMSNHL.