Prevalence of human papillomavirus in benign and malignant laryngeal lesions in Egyptian patients: Cross-sectional study.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the prevalence of human papillomavirus (HPV) in benign and malignant laryngeal lesions among Egyptian patients. DESIGN: Observational analytical cross-sectional study. SETTING: Ain Shams University hospital, Otorhinolaryngology department PARTICIPANTS: Formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded specimens of 126 patients (70 benign laryngeal lesions and 56 squamous cell carcinoma lesions) were assessed for the presence of HPV DNA using MY09/11 PCR-based DNA detection. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Percentage of positive samples was calculated. RESULTS: All 70 benign laryngeal lesion specimens were negative for the HPV DNA, while 2 of the 56 squamous cell carcinoma lesions (3.6%) were positive. CONCLUSIONS: The presence of HPV DNA in only two specimens in our study suggests that the proportion of laryngeal squamous cell carcinomas attributable to infection by HPV seems to be very low in Egypt.

Calcium Phosphate Nanoparticles Cytocompatibility Versus Cytotoxicity: A Serendipitous Paradox.

Due to efficacious characteristics of calcium phosphate nanoparticles (CPNs), they have numerously been employed in nanomedicine, particularly as carrier for therapeutic and diagnostic agents, and also in tissue engineering. Although calcium phosphate minerals are noted for their cytocompatibility, there are outstanding findings from various studies that question whether they are still compatible with cells in nanoscale ranges or not and it leads to the controversial issue of CPNs cytocompatibility versus cytotoxicity. In this regard, it is necessary to know how CPNs could result in cytotoxicity for future studies. Interestingly, most of the researchers have attributed the cytotoxicity to triggering of apoptosis in CPNs-exposed cells. Furthermore, it is reported that CPNs could result in cancer cell demise through induction of apoptosis. According to the findings, not only CPNs are promising for cancer cell drug delivery, but also they have the potential to be employed as therapeutic agents. In this review, firstly the physical and chemical properties of CPNs and their application in medicine are reviewed. Moreover, the interaction between CPNs and different kind of cells are covered. Lastly, employment of CPNs as a therapeutic agent is discussed.

The posterior glottis: structural and clinical considerations.

Despite the presence of a number of good publications during the past two decades, the posterior glottis (PG) is still not clearly appreciated in clinical laryngological practice. This study focuses on searching the literature to find out the present day awareness of the PG, as well as highlighting some of its clinical features. The investigation proceeds with two main sections: (1) critical analysis of the literature on the PG during the last 50 years (2) describing the clinical appearance and behavior of the PG in 100 normal subjects. Results of section 1 illustrate the limited awareness in the literature of the existence of PG as a distinct part of the human larynx. Results of section 2 illustrate some misconcepts related to the PG as inter-arytenoid pachydermia, change of voice with lesions in the PG. Discussion elaborates on the significance of the findings and attempts to clarify certain misconcepts about the PG, its structure, function, and clinical features. In the light of the data collected from the literature regarding the dimensions of the PG, a set of recommendations were proposed regarding the optimal sizes of the endotracheal tubes in both sexes.

Gastroesophageal reflux/laryngopharyngeal reflux disease: a critical analysis of the literature.

Despite the wealth of publications on the topic of gastroesophageal reflux and its variants, there are still many unsettled questions before one accepts the prevalent cult of "reflux disease". This study is summarizing the results of the critical analysis of the literature, 436 articles,during the last 30 years. The golden test to identify the patient group suffering from this rather common phenomenon is still lacking. The claimed extra-esophageal manifestations especially in the larynx are non-specific and may be caused by other factors well-known within the domain of vocology. The response to therapeutic intervention still lacks serious well-controlled studies to allow drawing reasonable conclusions. An outstanding feature of the publications is that most of them fall in the category of "review". It seems that there is a tendency to perpetuate the concept without objective criticism. Following the analysis, a recommendation for anew plan of original well-controlled multi-center studies is highlighted.