in terms of LPS and LTA neutralization and lower pro-inflammatory activity. In addition, the acetylated and amidated version of this peptide shows no toxicity and displays higher or equal antimicrobial activity compared to LL-37.

The clinical success of cochlear implantation in humans and the favorable results with modiolus-hugging devices depend on the anatomy of the human cochlea.

The Clarion CII is a promising cochlear implant with which our first 10 patients have obtained excellent speech perception results. The NRI system yields high quality signals with a limited number of sweeps at a high sampling rate.

Please be advised that this information was generated on 2018-05-11 and may be subject to change.We have performed retina) fluorescein angiography and audiometry in 32 familial and 7 sporadic cases of facioscapulohumeral muscular dys trophy. A mild to moderate retinal vasculopathy, consisting of retinal teleangiectasis and microaneursyms, was present in 18 of 37 evaluable angiograms (49%); 5 patients had minimal changes and 14 angiograms (38%) were normal. High frequency hearing loss was found in 25 (64%) out of 39 patients. Retinal changes were absent in 5 of 18 families (6 cases examined), and after correction for age and sex, hearing function was normal in 5 of 19 families (7 cases examined). Age and severity of the myopathy did not have a clear relationship with the retinal vascu lopathy or the hearing loss. There were no differences between families in which the myopathy was linked to chromosome 4q35 and families in which linkage could not be proven, Minimal retinal vascular changes and high tone hearing loss can be observed occasionally in the normal population. Therefore, although retinal vasculopathy and hearing loss are part of the clinical picture of FSHD, these signs cannot be accepted as decisive criteria for FSHD in clinically equivocal cases.

This study demonstrates that adenoid tissue in children with chronic or/and recurrent otitis media contains mucosal biofilms in 54% of the cases. The existence of living bacteria has been demonstrated. Further studies are required to describe the panel of bacteria that can be harbored in the biofilms present in adenoids and the mechanisms involved in the physiopathology of otitis prone children.