Hearing threshold of 30 diabetic patients and 30 healthy controls attending the medical outpatient department were determined using pure tone audiometry (Arphi Digital 900). All subjects were less than 50 years old. Subjects with otological and other metabolic diseases were excluded from the study. The patients were categorized into groups according to age, duration of disease, complications and control of diabetes. These observations were compared with those from the control subjects using appropriate statistical methods.It was found that diabetics had a poorer hearing threshold than the non-diabetics; all age groups with diabetes showed a significant high frequency hearing loss, as compared to the control population; poorly controlled and complicated diabetics have significant, high frequency hearing loss as compared to those who were well controlled and uncomplicated; there was no relationship between duration of the diabetes and the level of hearing loss.

Laryngeal tuberculosis is one of the rarer forms of extrapulmonary tuberculosis. A retrospective analysis of 26 patients seen in the last nine years in our hospital was conducted to illustrate the various modes of clinical presentation. Of the 26 patients, twenty were male and six female. The average age of presentation was 47 years with an age range of 15 months to 71 years. Hoarseness (92.3 per cent) was the commonest symptom. The laryngoscopic appearances often simulated malignancy. Most patients (69.2 per cent) had lesions involving the anterior two-thirds of the true vocal cords. Hypertrophic lesions (69.2 per cent) outnumbered ulcerative ones (38.5 per cent). Laryngeal oedema was infrequent (7.7 per cent). Diagnosis was based on a laryngeal biopsy in 18 patients and on evidence of associated pulmonary tuberculosis and response to anti-tuberculous therapy in eight. Chest X-rays showed apical cavitation and infiltration as the commonest findings. Three patients had miliary tuberculosis and one had no pulmonary lesion. Diabetes mellitus was present in seven (26.9 per cent) patients. Four illustrative cases are described. The problems in diagnosis and management of laryngeal tuberculosis are discussed.

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The authors describe an unusual case of a primary chondroid chordoma arising from the base of petrous temporal bone. The patient, a young male, presented with a left sided jugular foramen syndrome. The CT findings of a tumour arising from the base of the left petrous temporal bone were confirmed at infratemporal exploration. The clinical and histopathological and immunohistochemical differences between classical (typical) chordoma and its chondroid variant are highlighted. The rarity of primary chordomas at this site is stressed.

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