Changes in the configuration of sinonasal cavity after surgery have been assumed to cause changes in the voice quality. The purpose of this study was to know when the hypernasality will be recovered after sinonsal surgery in patients with nasal septal deviation or chronic rhinosinusitis by checking long-term and serially obtained nasalance scores using nasometer. Sixty-five patients underwent sinonasal surgery were included. We classified the subjects into three groups according to the different surgical interventions employed: septoplasty group, endoscopic sinus surgery (ESS) group, and ESS with septoplasty group. The nasalance scores were obtained using a nasometer preoperatively, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 months after surgery. The mean nasalance scores for vowels, nasal consonant, plosive consonant-vowel combinations, nasal consonant-vowel combinations, a hypernasality sentence, and hyponasality sentence increased significantly after sinonasal surgery. Hypernasality was most prominent in all groups for all acoustic parameters 1 month after surgery. Thereafter nasality decreased and returned to its preoperative level in all groups at 5 months in the [m], [ma], [mi], and hypernasality sentence, but at 6 months in the [a], [i], [u], [p(h)a], [p(h)i], and hyponasality sentence. Sinonasal surgery can change the acoustic characteristics of the vocal tract and produce a significant increase in nasality. After nasality showed the highest scores at 1-month post-surgery, it returned to its preoperative level at 5 or 6 months after surgery depending on the subtype of speech stimuli.

Background This study aimed to investigate the relationships between serum vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)‐A or VEGF‐C levels and lymph node metastasis (LNM) status in patients with papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC). Methods The study enrolled 150 patients with pathologically proven PTC who underwent surgery: PTC without LNM, PTC with central neck metastasis, and PTC with lateral neck metastasis. Results Preoperative serum VEGF‐A levels were 300.12 ± 80.80 pg/mL overall and were not correlated with the presence of LNM. Preoperative serum VEGF‐C levels were 132.41 ± 48.48 pg/mL overall and were significantly correlated with the presence of LNM. Serum VEGF‐C levels were further increased in patients with lateral neck metastasis and positively correlated with the number of metastatic LNs (rho = 0.252, P = 0.002). Serum VEGF‐C, but not VEGF‐A, was identified as a significant predictor of lateral neck metastasis. Conclusion Serum VEGF‐C might be a clinically relevant biomarker of lateral neck metastasis in patients with PTC.

Objectives. This study aimed to investigate whether optical coherence tomography (OCT) provides useful information about the microstructures of the middle and inner ear via extratympanic approach and thereby could be utilized as an alternative diagnostic technology in ear imaging.Methods. Five rats and mice were included, and the swept-source OCT system was applied to confirm the extent of visibility of the middle and inner ear and measure the length or thickness of the microstructures in the ear. The cochlea was subsequently dissected following OCT and histologically evaluated to compare with the OCT images.Results. The middle ear microstructures such as ossicles, stapedial artery and oval window through the tympanic membrane with the OCT could be confirmed in both rats and mice. It was also possible to obtain the inner ear images such as each compartment of the cochlea in the mice, but the bone covering bulla needed to be removed to visualize the inner ear structures in the rats which had thicker bulla. The bony thickness covering the cochlea could be measured, which showed no significant differences between OCT and histologic image at all turns of cochlea. Conclusion.OCT has been shown a promising technology to assess real-time middle and inner ear microstructures noninvasively with a high-resolution in the animal model. Therefore, OCT could be utilized to provide additional diagnostic information about the diseases of the middle and inner ear.

No abstract

No abstract