Although "optimum" conditions were present in the patients receiving beta-blocker, the authors thought that the grading system was not discriminating enough to demonstrate a significant difference between the groups. The crucial finding in the study was the correlation between heart rate and surgical grade in the entire group. During endoscopic sinus surgery surgery, anesthetic manipulations should be directed at maintaining a low heart rate.

This is the first study to show that fungal-specific IgE may be demonstrated in sinus mucin. It was significantly associated with systemic fungal allergy and may play a role in a minority of fungal sinusitis patients in the absence of systemic fungal allergy.

Objective Autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) are highly heritable neurodevelopmental disorders that onset clinically during the first years of life. ASD-risk biomarkers expressed early in life could significantly impact diagnosis and treatment, but no transcriptome-wide biomarker classifiers derived from fresh blood samples from children with autism have yet emerged. Method Using a community-based, prospective, longitudinal method, we identified 60 infants and toddlers at-risk for ASDs (autistic disorder and pervasive developmental disorder), 34 at-risk for language delay (LD), 17 at-risk for global developmental delay (DD), and 68 typically developing (TD) comparison children. Diagnoses were confirmed via longitudinal follow-up. Each child's mRNA expression profile in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) was determined by microarray. Results Potential ASD biomarkers were discovered in one half of the sample and used to build a classifier with high diagnostic accuracy in the remaining half of the sample. Conclusions The mRNA expression abnormalities reliably observed in PBMCs, which are safely and easily assayed in babies, offer the first potential peripheral blood-based early biomarker panel of risk for autism in infants and toddlers. Future work should verify these biomarkers and evaluate if they may also serve as indirect indices of deviant molecular neural mechanisms in autism.

This is the first prospective study to evaluate the prevalence of these increasingly widely recognized conditions. It highlights the need for otolaryngologists to be alert to these not uncommon diagnoses in order for early, appropriate medical and surgical management to be instituted.

The aetiology of nasal polyps remains obscure. Although clinically associated with asthma, notably in women, there is a marked male preponderance of polyposis. This study aimed to explore environmental pollutant triggers and gender differences in risk factors for nasal polyps. In total, 900 patients having surgery for polyposis and 120 new patients with nasal polyps completed a questionnaire with regard to occupational dust and chemical exposure. The male to female ratio was 2:1, and 52% were smokers, although only 37% of women smoked compared with 66% of men. Exposure to occupational dusts and chemicals was noted in 45% (retrospective) and 53% (prospective) of respondents. Women were 1.6 times more likely to be asthmatic and 2.7 times more likely to have allergic rhinitis than men. Men were 2.25 times more likely to be smokers and 2.48 times more likely to have been exposed to chemicals and dusts than women (all statistically significant differences). No significant gender associations were found for hayfever, eczema, aspirin intolerance, alcohol intake or hobby dust exposure.