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The more advanced the sinusitis, as evidenced by CT scans, the more the expected reduction in the ciliary area (CA) and in the ciliary count. But after FESS the degree of ciliary regeneration does not depend statistically on the radiological condition of the sinuses and the degree of opacity prior to intervention, i.e. a statistically valid inverse relationship exists between the radiological stage of sinusitis and the ciliary population pre-operatively but the same relation does not extend to the ciliary population post-operatively.

Background:Corticosteroids are mainstay of dermatological therapy and they are also a well known cause of osteoporosis. The objective of the present study was to find out the influence of the systemic intake of corticosteroids, either by the oral route or by IV pulse administration, on bone mineral density in dermatological patients using dual X-ray absorptiometry (DXA).Materials and Methods:This study was carried on 100 patients and 55 controls. The first group of patients included 55 patients undergoing long-term oral corticosteroid therapy daily and the second group included 45 patients who received IV dexamethasone pulse therapy. DXA was measured once for both the controls and patients in group 1. DXA was measured twice for patients in group 2, before starting pulse therapy (baseline DXA) and six months after regular treatment with pulse therapy (follow-up DXA).Results:The results show that significant reduction in BMD occurs in both groups, however, oral corticosteroids produce significantly more reduction in BMD in the lumbar spine. BMD was not found to be affected by the cumulative doses of corticosteroids, the duration of daily oral corticosteroid intake, or the number of IV dexamethasone pulses.Conclusion:Corticosteroid treatment causes significant BMD loss in patients treated by either route. Prophylactic treatment against osteoporosis is mandatory in patients receiving either form of corticosteroids.

Background Endometriosis is a common gynecologic disorder characterized by the implantation of the endometrial tissue ectopically outside the endometrial cavity. It affects about 10% of females at the childbearing period and is estimated to be present up to 20–50% in women complaining of infertility. While laparoscopy is considered the mainstay for diagnosis, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is recognized as a useful tool for definitive diagnosis, pre-surgical planning, and determining whether the patient will require multi-specialty involvement. The aim of this study is to evaluate the performance of MRI with the addition of diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) and T2 star (T2*) to conventional MRI, for the accurate assessment of ectopic endometrium. Results Endometriotic lesions that showed diffusion restriction on DWI were 80.7%, and 96.1% of the endometriotic lesions had signal voids on the T2*W sequence, whereas only 65.4% of the lesions had typical signal intensities on T1WI and T2WI. Diagnostic performance of the MRI examination was improved by the use of the diffusion sequence and better improved by the T2* sequence, compared to the conventional MR protocol sensitivity (SE) = 96.12% and specificity (SP) = 85.7% in T2*-weighted images, SE = 80.7% and SP = 71.4% in DWI, and SE = 65.4% and SP = 71.4% in conventional MRI. P value for conventional MRI was 0.1, which is of no statistical significance (p < 0.05). P value for DWI was 0.016, which is statistically significant (p < 0.05). P value for T2*WI was 0.001, which is more statistically significant (p < 0.05) and could be adequately correlated with laparoscopy. Conclusion DWI and T2* significantly increase MRI diagnostic accuracy by allowing the detection of the hemorrhagic character of the endometriotic lesions. Studies with a large sample size are needed to confirm that they can replace invasive laparoscopy for the diagnosis of endometriosis.