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A team of researchers set out to determine (1) whether newborn middle ear effusion present at age 30 to 48 hours is related to later diagnosis of chronic otitis media during the first year of life; (2) if infants with neonatal middle ear effusion have significantly more episodes of middle ear effusion during the first year of life than infants without neonatal middle ear effusion; (3) if infants with neonatal middle ear effusion have hearing loss during the first year of life as compared to infants without neonatal middle ear effusion.

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The sleep study has been considered the "gold standard" diagnostic tool determine which children with upper airway obstruction would benefit from a tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy. Yet, numerous prior reports have shown that children's upper airway obstruction symptoms improve after T&A regardless of whether a child's apnea is documented by a PSG. A team of specialists set out to determine whether otherwise healthy children with a clinical assessment of significant upper airway obstruction but with a PSG negative for OSA have improvement after tonsillectomy/adenoidectomy as compared to children who do not undergo surgery.

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A team of researchers from the Johns Hopkins University has found that there was no functional disadvantage to implanting the worse hearing ear, implying that trophic influences of residual hearing in the central nervous system may be more important to cochlear implant outcome than trophic effects in the spiral ganglion, which is directly stimulated by the device and conveys coded electrical signals generated by the prosthesis to the brain. These findings imply that the better ear could be preserved for the continued use of a hearing aid with the implant, or the use of future technologies.

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The reported mortality for invasive fungal sinusitis is between 50 and 80 percent. Organisms from Aspergillus and Mucoracaea (Mucor) fungi cause IFS and mortality results from intracranial invasion by these organisms. A research team from Atlanta conducted a retrospective study of 45 individual cases of 43 patients with invasive fungal sinusitis treated over the past 15 years at a tertiary care academic hospital.

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Steroids delivered by the intratympanic route for Meniere's disease demonstrate higher concentrations in the perilymph that those administered intravenously; the best profile has been reported for methylprednisolone.

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Aesthetic surgery on Asian-American patients relying on Caucasian norms may result in dissonant facial proportions. Furthermore, many Asian-Americans seek to maintain their ethnicity through cosmetic procedures making the challenge for surgeons to maintain appropriate ethnic facial features and correct only the features that are disproportionate to the rest of the face.

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Vertigo usually does not occur in ototoxicity unless the induced ototoxic effects are asymmetrical or if subjects undergoing ototoxic drug treatment have a preexisting vestibular asymmetry (difference in function between the two ears). A team of researchers has set out to investigate the occurrence of BPPN in subjects undergoing treatment with potentially ototoxic medications through prospective and retrospective record reviews.

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Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is currently being offered to Parkinson's disease (PD) patients whose disease is recalcitrant to medical therapy, but who are in otherwise relative good health. DBS has emerged as an attractive alternative to the ablative procedures by creation of a Å’functional"š lesion. No study to date has looked at the laryngeal and vocal outcomes in patients that have undergone DBS. A new study set out to obtain pilot data regarding the laryngeal findings in advanced PD patients seeking surgical treatments for their symptoms.

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When most mothers hear their child with a crowing or barking noise, a hoarse voice, or cough, they usually assume that croup is the culprit. However, their maternal instincts may be wrong for these symptoms are also typical of a laryngeal foreign body (LFB), and the diagnosis may be missed unless it is specifically considered in all young children presenting with stridor (a high-pitched, noisy respiration, like the blowing of the wind; a sign of respiratory obstruction, especially in the trachea or larynx) of acute onset.

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Ulcerative colitis patients who have their colon surgically removed are significantly less likely to develop a post-surgical complication called pouchitis when treated with probiotics, "good bacteria," after surgery.

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Wake Forest researcher has identified a syndrome as a leading cause of death in premature infants.

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Yale researchers have found that phenoxodiol, an investigational anti-cancer drug, induces cell death in 100 percent of ovarian cancer cells, including those cells resistant to "gold standard" chemo agents such as paclitaxel and carboplatin.

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The pneumococcal vaccine, recommended for all people over age 65, does not reduce the overall risk of pneumonia in seniors, according to a Group Health Cooperative study of 47,000 people.

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1) Test blunders risk needless abortions; 2) Ban on growth promoters; 3) Did Einstein and Newton have autism?; 4) Race to rescue underwater cables; 5) Mangrove plantations threat to coral reefs.

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Scientists at The Institute for Genomic Research and collaborators have deciphered the genome of the notorious Ames strain of the bacterium that causes anthrax, Bacillus anthracis. It is the first anthrax strain to be completely sequenced and analyzed.

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Scientists in Japan and at UCSD have discovered a novel regulatory role for one pseudogene. When the pseudogene is disabled, protein-production was compromised, with resulting abnormal kidneys an bones in laboratory mice.

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A dietary supplement containing genistein, a soy extract, reduced PSA levels by as much as 61 percent in a group of prostate cancer patients undergoing "žwatchful waiting"° for their disease, UC Davis Cancer Center researchers reported at the 2003 meeting of the American Urological Association meeting here Wednesday morning.

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A problem with developing a cystic fibrosis gene therapy is that delivering genes into airway cells is inefficient and disrupts the cell layer integrity. However, a finding by University of Iowa researchers and colleagues may help solve the problem, using a surprising tool -- a modified piece of the Ebola virus.

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In biology, size matters. Cell growth, the process whereby cells increase in mass, is critical to many life functions and has been implicated in diseases such as cancer and diabetes. Spurred by the discovery of a cellular pathway that helps switch cell growth on and off, new research links growth to a cell"šs ability to sense nutrients in its environment.

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Patches of red, thick skin covered with silvery scales are the hallmark of psoriasis, a chronic skin disease. The scaling occurs when cells in the outer level of skin reproduce faster than normal and pile up on the surface of your skin.