Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to E Virolainen.
Risk factors for recurrent otitis media were studied in 115 otitis-prone children. A group of 323 children was used as controls. The care of children in day care centers, parental smoking and a low socioeconomic status of the family were associated with recurrent otitis media. The duration of breast feeding, the child's age at introduction of cow's milk-based feeding and allergy were not associated with recurrent otitis media.
One thousand two hundred and seven school children aged seven to eight years were examined in the spring of 1978 in order to determine the frequence of undiagnosed secretory otitis media (SOM). All children were without any subjective ear symptoms. Two and eight tenths percent of the children were found to have SOM. The relation between SOM and the appearance of allergy, the occurrence of earlier otitis media, the occurrence of repeated upper respiratory tract infections and the treatment of earlier middle ear infections are discussed.
Among 49 male workers, mean age 30 years, who had been working in conditions of extreme noise and vibration for between 6 months and 10 years vestibular disturbances could be shown (in the form of spontaneous nystagmus, lowered caloric excitability, or pathology in rotatory tests) in as high as 44.9%. The lesions were believed to have arisen in the peripheral vestibular organ as a consequence of the low frequency vibration.
125 patients suffering from otosclerosis underwent oto-neurological investigations preoperatively and again daily from the second to sixth day postoperatively. An abnormal ENG in the form of a spontaneous or positional nystagmus, directional preponderance or a diminished caloric reaction could be found preoperatively in 30% of the patients. No statistically significant difference between patients with or without abnormal ENG findings could be shown in the late postoperative hearing results of 3 years in a series of different types of operations. Nearly half of the patients had postoperative nystagmus. On the second day nystagmus beat towards the operated ear in 22.3% of the patients. On the sixth day there was nystagmus only in one-third of the patients and it then beat towards towards the operated ear in only 12.1% of the patients and away from the operated ear in 12.6%. No statistically significant correlation could be found between the nystagmus findings and the late hearing results after 3 years' observation in this series of different types of operation.
To assess the suggested etiological role of human papillomavirus (HPV), biopsies from 14 patients operated on for an inverted papilloma (11 cases) and squamous cell carcinoma (3 cases) of the nasal cavity and paranasal sinuses were analysed for light microscopical evidence of HPV, by indirect immunoperoxidase (IP-PAP) to demonstrate HPV structural proteins, and using in situ DNA-hybridization to disclose the DNA of HPV types 6, 11 and 16. The majority of the inverted papillomas contained areas of metaplastic squamous cells, including koilocytes as well as dysplastic changes consistent with intra-epithelial neoplasia as described in uterine cervix. In 3 patients, frankly invasive squamous cell carcinomas were found, originating from dysplastic squamous epithelium. Of the 14 lesions, 7 (50%) expressed HPV antigens, usually confined to only a few cells close to the surface of the epithelium. None of the malignant lesions expressed HPV antigens. In situ DNA-hybridization disclosed HPV 11 DNA alone in 5 lesions, but none of the lesions contained HPV 6 DNA. HPV 16 DNA was found in 2 lesions as a single HPV type, and in 3 other lesions concomitant with HPV 11. All three carcinomas contained HPV 16 DNA. The HPV DNA distribution proved to be different from that found in the genital tract HPV lesions; HPV DNA was less abundant in the nasal papillomas, and it was also found in the basal and suprabasal cells.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)