Physiological taste threshold in type 1 diabetes mellitus.

The sense of taste is one of the important oral chemical senses that play a critical role in human life. The taste threshold increases by number of factors such as age, local and systemic disease like diabetes, consumption of alcohol, smoking. The aim of the present study was to assess the relationship between taste threshold in type 1 diabetics and non diabetics for four basic taste modalities (i.e. sweet, salt, sour and bitter). We studied 70 cases of type 1 diabetic and 70 non diabetics. The taste threshold was evaluated using 7 different serially half diluted concentrations of glucose (2.00 M–0.031 M), Nacl (1.00 M– 0.0156 M), citric acid (0.05 M– 0.0007 M) and quinine sulphate (0.001 M–0.000015 M). A significant increase in taste threshold for sweet (P<0.0001), salt, sour and bitter (P<0.001) in type 1 diabetic was observed. We concluded that taste sensation was reduced in type 1 diabetics.

Secondaries at deltopectoral flap donor site.

Deltopectoral flap and pectoralis major flaps form the basis of most reconstructions following ablative surgeries of head and neck region for cancers. There are many papers reporting acute complications but the literature on one late complication i.e. secondaries at flap donor site is rare. This is one such report and review of literature.

Surgical speech restoration by tracheo-oesophageal puncture--Kidwai experience.

This paper addresses our experience with primary (15 patients) and secondary (8 patients) tracheo-oesophageal puncture (TEP) in the laryngectomee. Despite a success rate of 93.3 percent in the primary TEP and 62.5 percent in secondary TEP, in a follow-up period of one month to eight years, prosthesis related problems like maintenance and recurring expenses emerged as significant deterrent factors in adopting prosthetic speech rehabilitation. Successful oesophageal speech training, increased practice of Pearson's near total laryngectomy, prior tracheostomy and advanced disease mandating post-operative radiotherapy in majority of patients are some of the factors in addition to prosthesis after-care maintenance that makes TEP a less practiced option at our center.