Houyong Kang

Patients with chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) and allergic rhinitis (AR) (CRSwAR) have a more severe condition with a higher rate of recurrence after endoscopic sinus surgery (ESS). This study aimed to explore the effect of specific subcutaneous immunotherapy (SCIT) and nasal irrigation on CRSwAR after ESS. Sixty-four patients who were diagnosed as CRSwAR and received ESS were enrolled and divided into groups A, B, and C to receive different postoperative treatment strategies (conventional medication, medication with nasal irrigation, and medication with nasal irrigation and SCIT), and their prognosis was evaluated by scoring, electron microscopy, and inflammatory factors. One year after ESS, the recurrence rate of group C was significantly reduced; and the scoring from baseline was significantly different among the three groups, which of group C were the best. The epithelium arrangement, cilia morphology, and inflammation of nasal mucosa in each group were better than those in the preoperative state; and those in group C were the best. After one year, the expression levels of eosinophil cationic protein (ECP), interleukin (IL)-8, and IL-17 in group B were lower than those of group A; and the expression levels of ECP, IL-8, IL-25, IL-33, IL-17 in group C were lower than those in group A. SCIT combined with nasal irrigation can improve the patients' symptoms and quality of life, promote the epithelialization of the mucosa in the surgical cavity, regulate the local immune response of the nasal cavity; thus improve the prognosis of patients with ESS after 1 year.

Cochlear implant (CI) users’ speech understanding may be influenced by different speaking styles. In this study, speech recognition was measured in Mandarin-speaking CI and normal-hearing (NH) subjects for sentences produced according to four styles: slow, normal, fast, and whispered. CI subjects were tested using their clinical processors; NH subjects were tested while listening to a four-channel CI simulation. Performance gradually worsened with increasing speaking rate and was much poorer with whispered speech. CI performance was generally similar to NH performance with the four-channel simulation. Results suggest that some speaking styles, especially whispering, may negatively affect Mandarin-speaking CI users’ speech understanding.

To investigate the epidemiological characteristics of allergic rhinitis (AR) in urban and rural areas of Ningbo and Yongzhou. Fifteen fields in the two cities from October 2006 to June 2007 were randomly selected. Cases suspected with symptoms of AR by a self-administered and interview questionnaire were recommended to special examinations for confirmed diagnosis. 1. A total of 9969 individuals from 3803 families were surveyed, of whom 303 suffered with AR. 2. The prevalence rate was 4.10% in Ningbo and 1.65% in Yongzhou (the sex-adjusted rate was 4.10% and 1.64% respectively, and the age-adjusted rate was 4.33% and 1.58%); the population of island inhabitants had the lowest prevalence rate of 0.73%. 3. The prevalence rate in patients with asthma and that with family genetic history was 8% and 12% respectively. It demonstrates that the prevalence rate is higher in Ningbo than in Yongzhou, in urban than in rural and in adolescent than in other ages. Allergic rhinitis may be associated with asthma and related to genetic factors. Allergic rhinitis may be curable.

To investigate the significance of E-selectin in nasal polyps. The E-selectin was measured by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay in 25 patients and 9 control cases from polyp tissue and normal inferior turbinates respectively. Meanwhile, the expression of E-selectin in these samples was studied with immunohistochemistry. All these samples were also studied by HE stain and observed under optical microscope. Plentiful eosinophils infiltrated the matrix were observed in nasal polyps group. The level of E-selectin was(42.58 +/- 13.52) microg/L,significantly higer than that of controls (11.35 +/- 3.17) microg/L, (P < 0.001). E-selectin express mainly in the vascular endothelial, the gland cells and the extracellular matrix with infiltrated inflammation cells of nasal polyps. The expressions in the vascular endothelial and the matrix of nasal polyps were significantly higher than those of inferior turbinates (84.0% and 92.0%, P = 0.05, 0.01, respectively). The statistical analysis showed there was positive correlation between the expression of E-selectin in the vascular endothelial and in the matrix (r = 0.544, P < 0.01). This study demonstrates that the secretion and expression of E-selectin in nasal polyps increase significantly. E-selectin may play a key role involving in the occurrence of nasal polyps in the chronic inflammation procedure with inflammation cells to attach to the vascular, to migrate into the matrix as well as to be activated.