Alexander Brodsky

Acute mastoiditis: the role of imaging for identifying intracranial complications.

Brain CT is performed in patients presenting with acute mastoiditis (AM) to identify intracranial complications (ICC). Recently, however, the need for CT scans in such patients has been questioned owing to concerns regarding long‐term effects of brain irradiation, with some clinicians claiming that the decision to scan should be based on a patients clinical presentation. This study was aimed at characterizing the typical clinical presentation of patients who already have ICCs when diagnosed with AM, and to compare it to that of AM patients presenting without ICCs.

Beneficial effect of contralateral amplification in cochlear implant users

Cochlear implants and conventional hearing aids use different stimulating signals. The beneficial effect of contralateral hearing aids in cochlear implantees, in terms of added speech perception, is still a matter of debate. The aim of this study was to evaluate the possible enhancement in speech perception in unilateral cochlear implantees who wear a conventional hearing aid in the non-implanted ear. Speech perception was evaluated after the patients had achieved a stable cochlear implant map and were comfortable with their binaural bimodal hearing.

Laryngeal Mass with Multiple Cranial Neuropathies as a Presenting Sign for Varicella Zoster Infection

The most common presentation of varicella zoster virus (VZV) infection is unilateral distribution of herpetic eruptions and neuralgia. Laryngeal involvement is considered very rare.

Does narrow band imaging improve preoperative detection of glottic malignancy? A matched comparison study

The primary suspicion for glottic malignancy during office laryngoendoscopy is based on lesion appearance. Previous studies investigating laryngeal use of narrow band imaging (NBI) are mostly descriptive. The additive value of NBI relative to white light (WL) requires further investigation.

Resistance of Reinforced Concrete Frames with Masonry Infill Walls to In-Plane Vertical Loading

Numerous studies have been conducted on the in plane behavior of masonry infill walls to lateral loading simulating earthquake action on buildings. The present study is focused on a problem that has almost not been studied regarding the vertical (opposed to lateral) in-plane action on these walls. This may be of concern when a supporting column of a multi-storey reinforced concrete frame with infill masonry walls undergoes a severe damage due to an extreme loading such as a strong earthquake, car impact or military or terror action in proximity to the column. The loss of the supporting column may cause a fully or partly progressive collapse to a bare reinforced concrete frame, without infill masonry walls. The presence of the infill masonry walls may restrain the process and prevent the development of a progressive collapse. The aim of the present study is to test the in-plane composite action of Reinforced Concrete (RC) frames with infill masonry walls under vertical loading through laboratory experiments and evaluate the contributions of infill masonry walls, in an attempt to examine the infill masonry wall added resistance to the bare frame under these circumstances. Preliminary results of laboratory tests that have been conducted on reinforced concrete infilled frames without a support at their end, under monotonic vertical loading along that column axis will be presented. The observed damages and failure modes under vertical loading are clearly different from the already known failure modes observed in the case of lateral loading.

Severe complicated mastoiditis caused by nontypable Haemophilus influenzae

Non-typable Haemophilus influenzae (NTHi) is emerging as an important cause of invasive disease in immunized children. We describe a healthy, fully immunized 4-year old child who presented with bacteremia due to NTHi without overt acute otitis media (AOM), and subsequently developed severe mastoiditis complicated by sigmoid sinus thrombosis. Although, mastoiditis is typically regarded as a complication of AOM, those cases without antecedent AOM may represent an entirely different pathophysiological process with NTHi bacteremia seeding the mastoid. We present another example of the potential invasiveness of NTHi with a temporal sequence of events whereby NTHi bacteremia seeds the mastoid. This may represent novel sequelae of NTHi infection.