Atsuko Ikeda

A CT Study of the Course of Growth of the Maxillary Sinus: Normal Subjects and Subjects with Chronic Sinusitis

We measured the maxillary sinus volume of normal children and those with bilateral chronic sinusitis by coronal CT scan of the paranasal sinus, and compared the results with findings previously obtained from adult patients. The distribution of mean maxillary sinus volume by age group from 4–9 to 70–79 years exhibited a monomodal pattern with a peak in the 20s in both the normal group and the surgical therapy group. The maxillary sinus volumes of children aged 10–15 years and adults tended to be smaller in the surgical therapy group than in the normal group; this tendency was more prominent in the adult group. These findings appear to support the hypothesis that the ethmoid infundibulum and middle meatus are narrowed by inflammation of the ostiomeatal complex and by various bony anatomic variations in the nasal cavity, leading to impaired pneumatization of the maxillary sinus.

Detection of antibody to sialyl-i, a possible antigen in patients with Meniere’s disease

An autoimmune hypothesis for the etiology of Menieres disease has been proposed. In this study, we focused on gangliosides as potential antigens for autoantibodies in Menieres disease patients. In an attempt to investigate ganglioside antigens which respond to the serum of patients with Menieres disease, we analyzed gangliosides of human acoustic neurinomas, and used them as antigens to broadly explore gangliosides that react to serum. All the acoustic neurinoma samples used in the present study showed a similar ganglioside profile on TLC (thin-layer chromatography). For the microscale ganglioside analysis, a newly developed TLC blotting/secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) system together with TLC immunostaining method was employed. Most of the ganglioside bands could be analyzed, and they were identified as GM3, GM2, SPG, GM1a, GD3, S-i (sialyl-i ganglioside) and GD1a. GD1a was the predominant ganglioside and many neolactoseries gangliosides were recognized by immunological analysis. Next, the immune reactivity of serum samples, from patients with Menieres disease, with the acoustic neurinoma gangliosides was studied by TLC immunostaining. The result showed that five of 11 patients with Menieres disease and one of eight normal subjects reacted with a specific band, which was identified as S-i by the TLC blotting/SIMS system. The findings of the present study indicate that S-i ganglioside is an autoantigen and possibly involved in the pathogenesis of Menieres disease.