No abstract

Eagle 's syndrome repres ents a group of symp toms that includes recu rrent throat pain, globus pharyngeus, dysphagia , referred otalgia, and neck pain possibly caused by elongation of the sty loid pro cess or ossification of the stylohyoid or stylomandibular ligaments. The medical history and ph ysical and radiologic examinations are the main guides to the precise diagnosis. The radiologic diagnostic modality of choice is three-dimensional computed tomography (3-D CT). We describe a case of bilaterally symptomatic Eagle ssyndrome that was diagnosed by 3-D CT of the styloid processes and successf ully treated with surge ry via a transoral approach.

Nasal polyposis (NP) is a chronic inflammatory disease in which several molecular and cellular interactions play important roles. Tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) is a major pro-inflammatory cytokine with a key role in immune inflammatory responses in NP. Altered levels of TNF-alpha, which may occur due to polymorphisms in the TNF-alpha promoter region, may also be associated with NP susceptibility. Given these facts, we investigated the possible association of the TNF-alpha -308 G/A single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) with NP. In this study, 97 consecutive adult patients with NP and 95 age- and gender-matched controls were recruited. For identification of SNP, restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis after polymerase chain reaction was carried out. The NP group had a significantly higher rate of polymorphism compared to controls (p = 0.015). Logistic regression analysis revealed that the presence of the TNF-alpha -308 G/A SNP is an independent risk factor for NP development (OR, 3.68; CI, 1.27-10.7; p = 0.016). The presence of a mutation failed to influence disease severity on the basis of resistance to medical and/or surgical treatment. This study suggests a possible linkage of a SNP in the TNF-alpha promoter with NP. These results need to be confirmed with multicentre studies for more precise interpretation and corroborative studies for investigating the influence of polymorphism on transcriptional activity.