Volume 6 Issue 3 (2016)

Objective: To evaluate the antitumor effect of cetuximab as a single agent for the treatment of oral cavity cancers and to clarify the dosedependent growth inhibitory effect in oral cavity squamous cell carcinoma cell line (OCSCCCL).

Methods: The OCSCCCL (UPCI-SCC131) were cultured and continuously monitored using the xCELLigence RTCA SP instrument. Thereafter, they were divided into seven groups as: (i) negative control: medium+OCSCCCL, (ii) positive control: medium+OCSCCCL+cisplatin 10 μM/ml, (iii) medium+OCSCCCL+cetuximab 25 μg/ml, (iv) medium+OCSCCCL+cetuximab 50 μg/ml, (v) medium+OCSCCCL+ cetuximab 100 μg/ml, (vi) medium+OCSCCCL+cetuximab 200 μg/ml, (vii) medium+OCSCCCL+cetuximab 400 μg/ml. The cell index and viability were statistically analyzed and compared between groups.

Results: The distribution of cell index (mean value) and percentage of viability in groups were as follows: (i) 2.66 (100%), (ii) 0.17 (6.08%), (iii) 2.28 (85.71%), (iv) 2.31 (86.84%), (v) 1.92 (72.18%), (vi) 1.79 (67.29%), (vii) 0.28 (10.53%). The change trend in drug concentration was statistically different in all study groups to which cetuximab was administered (Pillai’s trace; p<0.0001). The antitumor effect of cetuximab was initially detected at a dose of 100 μg/mL, when compared with negative control (p=0.01). However, a dose of 400 μg/mL was required in order to have a statistically similar antitumor effect of cisplatin at a dose of 10 μM.

Conclusion: Cetuximab alone is a potentially effective chemotherapeutic agent and has a concentration-dependent growth inhibitory effect in OCSCCCL. The antitumor activity of cetuximab was initially detected at a dose of 100 μg/mL. However, significant antitumor effect was determined at a dose of 400 μg/mL.

Objective: To determine the efficacy of systemic administration of coenzyme Q10 at low and high doses on cisplatin-induced ototoxicity in rats.

Methods: Our study was performed with 40 Sprague-Dawley rats. They were divided randomly into five groups: Cis, Cis+Q1030, Cis+Q1010, Q10, and control. Cis (n=8) group was administered cisplatin [a single intraperitoneal (i.p.) injection of 14 mg/kg], Cis+Q1030 (n=8) group was administered cisplatin (a single i.p. injection of 14 mg/kg) and coenzyme Q10 (30 mg/kg/day, i.p.) for 3 days, Cis+Q1010 (n=8) group was given cisplatin (a single dose of 14 mg/kg/day, i.p.) and coenzyme Q10 (10 mg/kg/day, i.p.) for 3 days, Q10 (n=8) group was administered coenzyme Q10 (10 mg/kg/day, i.p.) for 3 days and Group C (n=8) (control group) was administered saline solution (1 mL/day, i.p.) once daily for 3 days. Pretreatment and posttreatment hearing levels were evaluated with distortion product otoacoustic emissions (DPOAEs).

Results: There was no statistically significant difference in the results of measurements of 4004, 4358, 4761 and 5188 Hz at end of the study in comparison to baseline (p>0.05). On the other hand, there was a significant difference at the measurements of 5652, 6165, 7336 and 7996 Hz (p=0.002, p=0.037, p=0.001, p=0.001, respectively). The rate of change at 5652 Hz revealed that Cis group was different from Cis+Q1010, control and Q10 groups (p<0.01); measurements at 6165 Hz revealed that change at Cis group was significantly different from control and Q10 groups (p<0.01, p<0.05). Final measurements of decrease in Cis group at 7336 and 7996 Hz were significantly different from baseline (p<0.05; p<0.01).

Conclusion: The high-dose coenzyme Q10 showed a protective effect on hearing in cisplatin-induced ototoxicity while low-dose coenzyme Q10 protected hearing at low frequencies but did not show protective effect at high frequencies.

Objective: To investigate the healing effects of topical dexpanthenol on acute tympanic membrane (TM) perforations in rats through observations of healing time and histopathological changes.

Methods: A total of 20 Sprague-Dawley rats were included in the study. Every perforation was formed at the pars tensa of TMs with a size 2 mm in diameter. The right TM of each rat was treated with topical dexpanthenol for 2 days (treatment group); on the other hand, no topical agent was applied on the left TMs of rats (sham group). All TMs were examined under otomicroscopy at the third, fifth, and seventh days to determine the healing of TM perforations. Moreover, TMs were histopathologically examined to assess neovascularization, collagenization, fibroblastic activity, inflammatory cell positivity at the lamina propria (LP) layer of TMs.

Results: The TM perforations in the treatment group healed significantly earlier (p<0.05). The collagenization at LP was significantly higher in the treatment group (p<0.05), while neovascularization and inflammatory cell positivity were significantly higher in the sham group (p<0.05). The fibroblastic activity was higher in the treatment group although no statistically significant difference was determined.

Conclusion: The findings of the current study suggest that dexpanthenol may accelerate the healing of acute TM perforation.

Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between polymorphisms of endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) and myeloperoxidase (MPO) genes and development of microtia.

Methods: Nineteen (11 males, 8 females) unrelated cases with microtia and 40 healthy controls were enrolled in the present study. The study focused on three functional variants; a variant in exon 7 (G894T) and a variable number of 27 bp tandem repeats in intron 4 (VNTR) of eNOS gene and a variant in the promoter region (G463A) of MPO gene. We genotyped these variants using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and/or PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) method. The distribution of allele and genotype in eNOS and MPO genes were compared between cases with microtia and healthy controls using chi-square test.

Results: With regard to the eNOS (G894T) variant, there was a significant difference in genotype distribution between cases with microtia and healthy controls (OR: 1.267, 95% CI: 1.004–1.598; p=0.009). Our study demonstrated that cases with eNOS (G894T) TT genotype had increased risk of microtia. The allele frequencies of eNOS (VNTR) variant showed statistically significant difference between cases with microtia and healthy controls (OR: 2.947, 95% CI: 1.188–7.311; p=0.028). eNOS (VNTR) B allele was higher in the cases. However, there was no significant difference for MPO (G463A) variant according to genotype distribution and allele frequency between cases with microtia and healthy controls.

Conclusion: To the best of our knowledge, this is the first analysis of the eNOS (G894T and VNTR) and MPO (G463A) variants in cases with microtia. Our data demonstrate that eNOS gene variants might play crucial role on the etiopathogenesis of microtia in Turkish population. The findings of the current study highlight the necessity for prospective longitudinal studies in elucidating the relative contributions of various factors in diseases with a multifactorial etiology where there is interplay among genetic susceptibility and exogenous factors.

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate whether mean platelet volume (MPV), neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and platelet-lymphocyte ratio (PLR) can be used as inflammation markers in selection of pediatric patients, who were planned to undergo tonsillotomy for sleep apnea, or not.

Methods: The tonsillotomy group consisted of pediatric patients who had undergone tonsillotomy for sleep apnea between 2013–2015 years. The control group consisted of children who had presented to the WellChild Outpatient Clinics. The patient charts were reviewed retrospectively. MPV, NLR and PLR values were recorded and analyzed.

Results: In the tonsillotomy group, there were 23 patients whereas the control group consisted of 31 healthy children. The median age was 5 in the tonsillotomy group and 6 in the control group. MPV, NLR and PLR values did not have statistically significant differences between the tonsillectomy and control groups (p=0.838, p=0.314 and p=0.896, respectively).

Conclusion: MPV, NLR and PLR values are not inflammation markers that can be used in selection of patients to undergo tonsillotomy for sleep apnea.

Objective: Acute infection of the parotid gland is common in the clinical practice of ear-nose-throat medicine. The present study aims to demonstrate the effect of parotid gland massage on serum amylase levels.

Methods: The study included 30 patients with acute parotitis presenting to our clinic and 14 healthy volunteers. The correlation between the serum samples collected before and after parotid gland massage was compared.

Results: A significant difference was observed in the amylase levels before and after massage in the acute parotitis group. Amylase levels did not differ significantly between measurements before and after massage in healthy subjects.

Conclusion: Patients should be evaluated with consideration to the effect of parotid gland massage performed to determine suppuration of parotid gland on amylase levels.

Objective: We aimed to investigate the frequency of incidental diagnosis of paranasal sinus and mastoid abnormalities on brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and its correlation with symptoms of patients.

Methods: We examined 100 patients who underwent brain MRI due to several different complaints other than sinusitis and mastoiditis. The patients who had any nasal or otologic pathology in otolaryngology examination were excluded from the study. Afterwards, a total of 65 patients were included into the study. The questionnaire consisted of otological symptoms and Sino-nasal Outcome Test (SNOT-20), Lund and Mackay scoring system for rhinosinusitis were filled by all patients immediately prior to imaging. The analysis of the MRI scan in terms of rhinosinusitis according to the Lund-Mackay radiological scoring and mastoiditis was performed by the same radiologist.

Results: The mean age of 65 patients was 46.62±17.73 years. Eighteen (27.7%) of these were men and 47 (72.3%) were women. In 26 (40%) of 65 patients, MRI demonstrated mastoiditis. We could not find any statistically significant correlation between mastoiditis and upper respiratory tract infection (p=0.896). There was no statistically significant relationship between radiological scores and total sinus symptom scores (p=0.93). Additionally, we could not find any correlation between radiological scores and SNOT-20 (p=0.923).

Conclusion: Our findings demonstrated that although some of these patients had various symptoms of sinus or mastoid diseases, these symptoms had no statistically significant correlation with the radiological diagnosis. In conclusion, radiologists should advise clinical correlation of their radiologic findings rather than reporting a clinical diagnosis such as sinusitis and mastoiditis.

Objective: Nowadays, psoriasis is accepted to be an autoinflammatory/ autoimmune disease. As a result of chronic inflammation, psoriasis is widely investigated for associated diseases and comorbidities. However, there are limited data about the effects of psoriasis on hearing functions. The aim of the study was to investigate prospectively if patients with psoriasis have sensorineural hearing loss and the effect of the disease severity on hearing levels.

Methods: Overall, 50 patients (100 ears) with psoriasis and 45 healthy controls (90 ears) were included in the study. After otoscopic examination, pure tone air and bone conduction including high frequencies (500, 1000, 2000, 4000, 8000, and 16,000 Hz) and speech audiometry were performed to all participants.

Results: Median pure tone average of the patients was significantly different than controls. Moreover, the frequency levels of patients with psoriasis for both of the ears were all significantly different from the control group. As the limitation of the study, patients were not investigated for psoriatic arthritis and sera from patients were also not investigated for anti-bodies for inner ear antigens such as anti-connexin 26, anti-DEP/CD148 and anti 68K.

Conclusion: The possibility of inner ear involvement should be kept in mind in psoriasis as a result of chronic systemic inflammation. Patients with psoriasis may be evaluated with audiometry periodically even if they do not exhibit any hearing problems.

Objective: There are many factors considered to be related with the etiology of sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SSNHL) such as viral infections, microvascular diseases and inflammation. Increased mean platelet volume (MPV) levels are assumed to represent more active enzymatic process and thrombotic predisposition. Our aim in this study is to show whether MPV could be a predictive value in SSNHL or not.

Methods: The medical records of a total of 93 patients with SSNHL and 93 healthy controls were reviewed retrospectively in this study. Peripheral blood MPV values of both groups were compared statistically.

Results: Mean platelet volume levels did not show a statistically significant difference between these groups.

Conclusion: As a result of our study, we consider MPV is not a predictive parameter in idiopathic SSNHL.

Sialolithiasis is a condition characterized by the obstruction of salivary gland or its excretory duct by a calculus or sialolith. This condition provokes swelling, pain, and infection of affected gland leading to salivary ectasia and even causing the subsequent dilatation of the salivary gland. The aim of this case report is to present a rare condition of sialolithiasis of the submandibular gland with actinomycosis. In this report, we presented a 35- year-old male patient having coexistence of submandibular sialolithiasis and actinomycosis with a literature review. Patient underwent excision of the right submandibular gland due to siaololithiasis. Pathologic examination revealed chronic sialadenitis, sialolithiasis, actinomyces which all necessitate the excision of right submandibular gland with stones with 1.5 cm in diameter. It should be keep in mind that sialolithiasis may be a predisposing factor for submandibular actinomycosis and removal of the sialolith or the entire gland is of particular importance.