SSCD can present with a conductive hearing loss that mimics otosclerosis and could explain some cases of persistent conductive hearing loss after uneventful stapedectomy. Audiometric testing with attention to absolute bone-conduction thresholds, acoustic reflex testing, VEMP testing, laser vibrometry of the umbo, and computed tomograph scanning can help to identify patients with SSCD presenting with conductive hearing loss without vertigo.
An accepted staging system for squamous cell carcinoma of the external auditory meatus is currently lacking and would permit accurate comparison of treatment strategies and results for patients with this unusual neoplasm. In order to develop such a staging system we reviewed the prognostic variables and the accuracy of radiographic diagnosis in 39 patients undergoing temporal bone resection for squamous carcinoma of the external auditory meatus. Predictors of poor survival were extensive tumor involvement, facial nerve paralysis, middle ear involvement, and cervical or periparotid lymphadenopathy. In a comparison of 12 specific anatomic sites, computed tomography was found to be an accurate indicator of histopathologically proven tumor invasion. On the basis of this clinical radiographic-histopathologic analysis, we propose a TNM staging system for external auditory meatus carcinoma utilizing preoperative computed tomography and physical examination. This system fulfills the requirements of the American Joint Committee on Cancer that a staging system should provide a sound basis for therapeutic planning for cancer patients by describing the survival and resultant treatment of different patient groups in comparable form.
Of 293 patients who underwent computed tomography (CT), surgery, and pathologic examination for chronic sinusitis, 25 had a diagnosis of fungal sinusitis at pathologic examination. Of these, 22 had foci of increased attenuation at CT (in four patients the mean representative CT number [Hounsfied unit] was 122.2 HU [SD, 8.2 HU]), and three did not. Of the 22, 19 patients (76%) met the CT criterion of this study (there was a 12% false-positive and a 12% false-negative diagnostic rate). Six of the 19 patients and one additional patient underwent magnetic resonance (MR) imaging, and all demonstrated remarkably hypointense signal characteristics on T2-weighted images. The findings at MR imaging therefore appear more characteristic of fungal sinusitis than the findings at CT. Furnace atomic absorption spectrometry showed increased concentrations of iron and manganese in mycetoma compared with their concentrations in bacterially infected mucus. This finding and the presence of calcium in the fungal concretion may explain the hypointense T2-weighted signal on MR images.
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