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A 33 years-old female with a diagnosis of Kartagener's syndrome was studied. She had a clinical history of chronic sinusitis with nasal obstruction and rhinorrea, and a chronic cough with mucopurulent sputum. A paranasal sinus CT showed hypertrophyc mucosa. A thoracic CT showed a situs inversus and chronic bronchitis with bronchiectasis. The saccharin test lasted 55 minutes. The electron microscopy study showed in a a cross-sectional axoneme a total absence of the outer and inner arm of the 9th outer doublet in over a 100 cilias studied. No others ultrastructure anormalities were observed.

In 10 patients (5 smokers) with benign laryngeal polyp of a single vocal cord, a biopsy was performed. Five normal control specimens were obtained from the larynx of recently deceased patients who underwent postmortem study. Langerhans cells were counted in specimens of histologically normal and pathological vocal cord mucosa after identification with S-100 polyclonal antibody. Langerhans cells were 11.5-fold more common in the epithelium of vocal cord polyps than in the mucosa of normal vocal cords.

A rare case of vascular leiomyoma of the inferior nasal turbinate in a diabetic patient is presented. Local excision was performed under endoscopic control. There have not been signs of recurrence after 2 years follow-up.

The differences between the submucosal glands and globet cells of the subglottic mucosa were studied by lectin immunohistochemistry in 4 larynxes of Syrian golden hamster (Mesocricetus auratus). Submucosal glands showed intense reactivity to HPA, N-WGA and N-PNA and reactivity to PNA, UES-I, and ConA, but globet cells showed no reactivity.

A case of acute bilateral vocal cord paralysis in adduction of an elderly woman with multisystem atrophy is reported. Emergency tracheotomy was performed.

Glycoproteins and glycolipids play an important role in cellular biological specificity. The use of lectins as histochemical probes may be useful in studying the nasal mucosa. Eosinophils are a common finding in the nasal mucosa of patients with nasal polyposis. Histocytochemistry of eosinophils in the nasal mucosa of such patients revealed reactivity to all lectins used in this study except LTA. This suggests that alpha-L-fucose was not present in the eosinophils of the nasal mucosa of patients with nasal polyposis and asthma.

In 10 albino New Zealand rabbits, a study was made of the regeneration of the hair cells in the maxillary sinus mucosa three months after removing the sinus mucosa. Using optical microscopy and transmission and scanning electron microscopy, basal and non-hair cells were studied as the probable origin of hair cells. The regenerated sinus mucosa showed areas of epithelium consisting only of a basement membrane and a layer of basal cells. Ultrastructurally, two types of basal cell were visible in the regenerated mucosa. The proportion of non-hair cells was greater than in normal mucosa.

A prospective study was carried out on 25 patients showing symptoms suggestive of peritonsillar abscess. Twelve patients were treated with i.v. antibiotics and three months later underwent tonsillectomy. Thirteen patients underwent acute tonsillectomy within 24-48 hours. In order to evaluate the benefits of acute tonsillectomy we compared three parameters; operation length, intraoperative bleeding and overall length of hospitalization.

After reviewing the Arnau de Vilanova Hospital's records, a total of ten cases of inverted papillomas were found. Nasal obstruction was present in 100% of the cases. External surgery was performed in 70% of these patients, finding that in 50% of them, the real size of the tumor was smaller than that show in the radiological study. After surgical treatment, only one of the patients developed a malignant tumor. Incidence of papilloma recurrence was 30%.