To evaluate the CT findings of ossicular disruption and fracture utilizing high resolution computed tomography(HRCT) of the temporal bone.

The authors retrospectively reviewed the HRCT scans of 11 patients with ossicular injuries between January 1998 and June 2002 using films in 8 patients, PACS in 3 patients. The type of ossicular injuries, temporal bone fracture, and associated adjacent injuries were evaluated.

Among the 11 patients of ossicular injuries, there were 10 cases of incudomalleal disruption, 4 cases of incudostapedial disruption, and 1 case of fracture of malleus, fracture of incus, disruption of long and lenticular process of incus, nonvisualization of processes of incus. The temporal bone fractures were longitudinal in 7 cases, transverse in l case. Other injuries were fracture of the carotid canal, caroticocavemous fistula, fracture of sphenoid and occipital bones.

Incudomalleal disruption was the most frequent tupe of ossicular injuries and associated temporal bone fracture was longitudinal type. HRCT using PACS was useful in evaluation of ossicular injuries than films.

The aim of this study is to obtain the basic knowledge for safer clinical use of oxymetazoline, one of nasal decongestants, by observing changes of ciliary activity and histopa-thologic findings after topical application of oxymetazoline to the cultured human basak mucosa.

The nasal mucosa, obtained from the inferior tubinates in healthy non-smokers without any nasal symptoms or signs, was cultured and then, exposed to oxymetazoline solu-tion at different concentrations from 0.0123% to 0.25%, containing no preservatives. Ciliary activity was observed under an inverted microscope and the histopathology of the mucosa was examined by light microscopy 1,3,6,12,24 and 48 hours after exposure, respectively.

Oxymetazoline impaired ciliary activity and induced mucosal injury at dose- and time-dependent patterns. Once the ciliary activity disappeared, it was not restored at least for the next 48 hours. Furthermore, these functional and morphologic changes resulted from applying oxymetazoline at the concentration of clinical use.

Oxymetazoline as a topical vasoconstrictor should be administered for the minimal period even at clinical dose.

Experience in development of home pages for Ewha Womans University College of Medicine were documented to present references for future development of informatics media.

Development principles were established for the optimal allocation of human and hardware resources, and for the effective construction of contents and structures of the home pages.

Home pages were implemented on a web server(mm.ewha.ac.kr) in Ewha Womans University. Their structural hierarchy and contents were determined according to the principles described earlier.

The author's experiences will be helpful for the enhancement and maintenance of the home page of each department and for the future development of similar informatics media.

This study was performed to compare postoperative results of thyroplasty typeI and arytenoid adduction, which were recent phonosurgical procedures for the management of unilateral vocal cord paralysis.

Twenty-two cases of unilateral vocal cord paralysis with several etiologies were managed with thyroplasty typeI and/or arytenoid adduction. The subjective and MPT(maximum phonation time) improvements after those procedures were compared statistically.

The cause of paralysis were idiopathic(7 cases), thoracic lesion(6 cases) thyroidectomy(3 cases), neck mass excision(3 cases), neck trauma(2 cases) and diphtheria(case). The left side(15 cases) was paralyzed more frequently than the right(7 cases). There were significant increase(p=0.006) in MPT from 4 seconds preoperatively to 6 seconds postoperatively in thyrolasty cases, and also significant increase(p=0.014) from 5 seconds to 10.5 seconds in arytenoid adduction cases. Better result were observed in subjective improvement and MPT(p=0.0011) with arytenoid adduction. There was no significant complication.

Both arytenoid adduction and thyroplasty were effective and safe phonosurgical procedures for unilateral vocal cord paralysis. Better results were observed in arytenoid add-uction cases.

Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma(HNSCC) has been associated with host immunosuppression, including depressed T-lymphocyte and natural killer cell function. This immunosuppression has been shown to be most pronounced in the locoregional environment of the tumor and appears to be mediated by soluble suppressor factor prostaglandinE₂(PGE₂). PGE₂ is a product of cell membrane phospholipid metabolism that is known to have potent immunoregulatory activity including inhibition of natural killer cell activity and antibody dependent cell mediated cytotoxicity(ADCC).

In our experiment, we have established an ADCC assay with IgGl cMAB SF-25, 323A/3 using human squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck cell line(PCI-50) as target. The measurement of cytotoxicity was determined by measuring the release of ⁵¹Chromium from the target cells after 4 hour incubation.

PGE₂ inhibited antibody dependant cell mediated cytotoxicity.

It thus implies that the production of prostaglandins by tumor cells may constitute a means by which the tumor cells subvert the effect of a cellular immune response that is directed against them and arming of NK cells with chimeric antibody could be considered in developing means for treatment of human SCCHN in adjuvant setting.