Dorland's Illustrated Medical Dictionary gives the following definition of dactylitis (deltaalphachitauupsilonlambdaomicronsigma = digit): 'inflammation of a finger or toe'. Although any inflammatory process involving the fingers or toes may be called dactylitis, the term has entered in current use only in some well-defined entities. These differ in the involved tissue of the digit and in the type of involvement. Tuberculous dactylitis is the variant of tuberculous osteomyelitis affecting the short tubular bone of the hands and feet. Radiographs typically show a central, lytic, cystic, and expansive lesion known as spina ventosa. Syphilitic dactylitis is a manifestation of congenital syphilis. Radiological findings mimic those of tuberculous dactylitis but the involvement is bilateral and symmetric. Sarcoid dactylitis is due to typical non-caseating granulomas invading the phalanges and the adjacent soft tissue. Blistering distal dactylitis is an infection of the anterior fat pad on the volar surface of the distal portion of a single finger or more rarely a toe, mostly caused by group A beta-haemolytic streptococci. Sickle cell dactylitis, also known as 'hand-foot syndrome', is due to localized bone marrow infarction of the carpal and tarsal bones and phalanges. Spondyloarthritis dactylitis, also called 'sausage-like' digit, is a diffuse painful swelling of the fingers and toes. Recent ultrasonography (US) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies on both finger and toe dactylitis have established that dactylitis is due to flexor tenosynovitis and that the enlargement of the joint capsule is not an indispensable condition for the 'sausage-like' feature. There is no evidence of enthesitis of flexor digitorum tendons and joint capsule.

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Clinical-morphological correlation of nasal obstruction with skull base development and otitis media. An experimental study.

Morphological changes of the middle ear were investigated by means of microotoscopy and scanning electron microscopy in 40 developing Albino rats. In 20 one nostril (group B) and in 20 both nostrils (group C) had been experimentally obstructed. 20 rats were used as controls (group A). Microotoscopy and scanning electron microscopy on the middle ear mucosa were performed when the animals were 2 months old, i.e. at 90% of their development. At microotoscopy the tympanic membranes, homolateral to the obstructed nostril, proved to be abnormal in 81% of group B rats and in almost all rats belonging to group C. Scanning electron microscopy, performed after the bullae had been removed, showed the following epithelial surface changes of the middle ear homolaterally to the obstructed nostril: (a) a significant increase of nonciliated elements with a secretory behavior as compared to controls, even of the floor where normally a large number of ciliated cells is present; (b) several ciliated cells were destroyed and their cilia were irregular and untidy; (c) thick mucous secretions covered the floor of the tympanic bulla; and (d) squamous metaplasia of the hypotympanic epithelium. Extrarotation of the eustachian tubes and developmental abnormalities of the skull base in growing rats, caused by nasal obstruction, seem to be able to induce pathological events of the middle ear.

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