The objective of this study was to assess the prevalence of odontogenic cysts (OCs) in Sicily and evaluate their distribution during a 20-year period. A cross-sectional retrospective study was carried out in 1,310 cysts of the jaw diagnosed in 12,197 individuals, who consecutively attended the Odontostomatologic Clinic of Palermo from 1986 to 2005. 1,273 cysts were classified as odontogenic, whereas only 37 were nonodontogenic. In the former group, the most frequent lesions were radicular cysts (84.5%), followed by dentigerous OCs (11.4%). Inflammatory radicular cysts were observed more in male gender, younger age at diagnosis and anterior maxilla as site of presentation. Unlike dentigerous cysts, the frequency of radicular cysts decreased from 10. Keywords: odontogenic cysts; epidemiology; demographics. IntroductionOdontogenic cysts (OCs) are relatively rare cystic lesions that affect the maxillofacial region. According to the most recent World Health Organization (WHO) International Classification (1), OCs were classified into two main groups that reflect their pathogenesis. The first group includes radicular cysts, recognizing its inflammatory origin and development as the consequence of advanced caries and dental pulpar necrosis (2), whereas in the second group, lesions of developmental origin namely, dentigerous cysts and keratocysts are included.Although the prevalence of OCs in several European and non-European countries has been reported and different risk factors (dental trauma, sex, long-term chronic phlogistic processes, high caries index in early age and oral hygiene) have been mentioned as contributing to these lesions (2-5), there is still a general lack of data. In Sicily, the only data published is limited to a survey regarding keratocysts observed in the eastern part of the island (6). The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of OCs in our country and evaluate their distribution in relation to social, demographic and behavioral data of the patients who visited for all oral pathological lesions during 20 years. Materials and Methods Study populationA retrospective survey was carried out in 12,197 individuals, who consecutively attended the Odontostomatologic Clinic of the University of Palermo from 1986 to 2005 for all oral pathological lesions.A total of 1,310 patients were diagnosed to be affected by cysts of the jaw (708 males and 602 females; mean age

The aim of this study was to verify the efficacy and the safety of transtympanic dexamethasone to treat sudden sensorineural hearing loss as first and single drug method. Considering ethical implication of performing a mininvasive procedure on middle ear, we matched such proposed treatment with systemic prednisone administration that represents the widest adopted protocol. Randomized prospective study was conducted. The inclusion criterion was a sudden sensorineural hearing loss of at least 30 dB across three contiguous frequencies over a period of 24 h. Group A received transtympanic steroid injections; Group B received oral administration of steroids. 25 patients were treated with transtympanic therapy whereas 21 underwent systemic treatment. The mean of initial PTA was 59 dB for the whole series: 65 dB for group A and 51 dB for group B. The recovery better than 10 dB was obtained in 80% of patients of group A and in 17 81% of patients of group B, with a total of 80.5%. The mean relative gain in PTA was 41.16% in the group A and 44.7% in the group B. In the frequencies tested (0.5, 1, 2, and 4 kHz) PTA improvements after transtympanic treatment were higher than after systemic treatment, but these differences were not statistically significant (P = 0.61). Both transtympanic and systemic treatment had similar clinical recovery times. This prospective randomized clinical study showed good result in terms of hearing recovery, better than the expected results of the simple observation without treatment. We can consider transtympanic administration as a first line treatment, because of the statistical analysis confirmed similar results with systemic therapy, reducing possible side effects of systemic drug administration. The delay of treatment does not influence the outcome, allowing treating patients within 10 days of onset.

Objective: The aim of the present work was to determine what dietary assessment method can provide a valid and accurate estimate of nutrient intake by comparison with the gold standard. Design: A MEDLINE, EMBASE, ISI Web of Science, Cochrane and related references literature review was conducted on dietary assessment methods for adolescents reporting the validity and/or reproducibility values. A study quality assessment on the retrieved FFQ was carried out according to two different scoring systems, judging respectively the quality of FFQ nutrition information and of FFQ validation and calibration. Setting: The present review considered adolescents attending high schools and recruited in hospitals or at home. Subjects: The target of the review was the healthy adolescent population in the age range 13-17 years. Results: Thirty-two eligible papers were included and analysed separately as 'original articles' (n 20) and 'reviews' (n 12). The majority (n 17) assessed the validation and reproducibility of FFQ. Almost all studies found the questionnaires to be valid and reproducible (r . 0?4), except for some food groups and nutrients. Different design and validation issues were highlighted, such as portion-size estimation, number of food items and statistics used. Conclusions: The present review offers new insights in relation to the characteristics of assessment methods for dietary intake in adolescents. Further meta-analysis is required although the current review provides important indications on the development of a new FFQ, addressing the need for a valid, reproducible, userfriendly, cost-effective method of accurately assessing nutrient intakes in adolescents. Keywords Dietary assessment Adolescents Validation ReproducibilityAdolescence is a critical period that is characterized by cognitive, emotional and social development and exposure to a significant turnover in lifestyle, including food intake and diet habits. Irregular meals, snacking and meal skipping, which characterize teenagers, often do not allow an accurate dietary assessment (1) and therefore the need to develop valid and reproducible instruments for this purpose is increasing. Different dietary assessment methods among adolescents have been extensively described and validated, such as food records (FR), FFQ, diet histories (DH) and 24 h recalls (24-HR). The FR is not used in large population studies for several reasons (2) : it can be quite expensive; it requires the participant to be literate and motivated; it involves trained staff; and it needs a computerized program specific to recording diet records. Thus, the FR is preferably used at the individual level and is generally considered a good reference instrument against which to validate other dietary methods to be used at the large population level, together with biomarker measurements (3) . The most used dietary assessment methods for large-scale surveys are therefore FFQ, 24-HR and DH, which present advantages such as cost-effectiveness, although they are affected by weaknesses (4,5) ...

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Background: Allergic rhinitis (AR) and nonallergic rhinitis (NAR) may present with different clinical and laboratory characteristics. Methods: A total of 1,511 consecutive patients, aged 18–81 years, diagnosed with rhinitis, 56% females and 44% males, underwent complete allergic evaluation including skin prick test, blood eosinophil counts, nasal eosinophil counts, peak nasal inspiratory flow (PNIF) measurement and evaluation of nasal symptoms using a visual analog scale (VAS). Results: A total of 1,107 patients (73%)had AR, whereas 404 (27%) had NAR. Patients with NAR were older and predominantly female. A higher nasal eosinophils count was associated with AR and a lack of clinical response to antihistamines. AR patients had more sneezing and nasal pruritus, whereas NAR was characterized mainly by nasal obstruction and rhinorrhea. AR patients had more severe symptoms and recurrent conjunctivitis, whereas NAR patients had slightly more frequent episodes of recurring headaches as well as olfactory dysfunction. PNIF, blood eosinophil counts and VAS of nasal symptoms were higher in patients with AR. In a final logistic regression model, 10 variables were statistically different between AR and NAR: age [OR 0.97 (95% CI 0.96–0.98)], sneezing [OR 4.09 (95% CI 2.78–6.00)], nasal pruritus [OR 3.84 (95% CI 2.60–5.67)], mild symptoms [OR 0.21 (95% CI 0.09–0.49)], intermittent/severe nasal symptoms [OR 3.66 (95% CI 2.06–6.50)], VAS [OR 1.06 (95% CI 1.04–1.08)], clinical response to antihistamines [OR 22.59 (95% CI 13.79–37.00)], conjunctivitis [OR 4.49 (95% CI 2.86–7.05)], PNIF [OR 1.01 (95% CI 1.00–1.01)] and nasal eosinophil counts [OR 1.14 (95% CI 1.10–1.18)]. Receiver operating characteristic analysis showed high predictive accuracy for a model including these variables independently of the diagnosis of AR/NAR (cutoff <0.74). Conclusions: We showed that the several clinical and laboratory parameters reported above may help to reinforce or exclude the diagnosis of AR obtained with skin prick test.