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Background: Malignant tumours of minor salivary glands are uncommon, representing only 2-4% of all head and neck cancers. In the larynx, minor salivary gland tumours rarely occur and constitute less than 1% of laryngeal neoplasm. Most of the minor salivary gland tumours arise in the subglottis; however, they can also occur in the supraglottis, in the false vocal cords, aryepiglottic folds and caudal portion of the epiglottis. The most common type of malignant minor salivary gland tumour is adenoid cystic carcinoma. Methods: We present a unusual case of adenoid cystic carcinoma of glottic-subglottic region in a 61-year-old woman. Follow-up endoscopy and laryngeal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) at three years after treatment showed no recurrence of the tumour. Results: The diagnosis of glottic-subglottic adenoid cystic carcinoma should be considered in patients who are characterized by dyspnea, cough and stridor, but do not respond to pharmacologic approach. Conclusions: Adenoid cystic carcinoma is usually a very slow growing cancer, invested by an apparently normal laryngeal mucosa, so that it can show no clear symptoms for a long time. For these reasons the increasing number of diagnostic mistakes or late diagnosis that may be fatal in some cases

Objectives: The antibacterial spectrum of moxifloxacin includes all the major respiratory pathogens, and its pharmacokinetics demonstrate high peak concentrations in plasma as well as at respiratory sites. Nevertheless, tonsillar tissue concentrations have never been investigated. In this study we determined the moxifloxacin concentrations in plasma and tonsillar tissue after the administration of three doses of moxifloxacin 400 mg to adult patients with chronic or recurrent tonsillitis undergoing tonsillectomy. Methods: This was an uncontrolled, open-label, randomized, parallel group study including 35 patients assigned randomly to five groups of 7 patients each, depending on the time between the last dose of moxifloxacin and plasma and tissue sampling. Moxifloxacin was given orally once daily for 3 days; its concentrations were measured using a validated HPLC assay and fluorescence detection. Each sample was analysed twice and the mean value obtained used for the statistical analysis. Pharmacokinetic data were analysed by presenting descriptive statistics of moxifloxacin concentrations in plasma and tonsillartissue. Results: C max occurred at 3 h in tonsillartissue (mean 8.96 mg/L) and in plasma (mean 3.20 mg/L), the tissue/ plasma concentration ratios (mean values) being constantly >2, ranging between 2.37 (after 2 h) and 2.93 (after 24 h), which indicates a prolonged maintenance of moxifloxacin concentration in tonsillar tissue compared with plasma. Variability among patients was present at 6 h, with the tonsillar tissue/plasma concentration ratio ranging between 0.8 and 3.4. Conclusions: Moxifloxacin achieves a good penetration in tonsillar tissue, which compares favourably with that reported for other fluoroquinolones. The moxifloxacin concentrations we observed exceed the MICs for the usual respiratory tract pathogens.

Short-course treatments for streptococcal pharyngotonsillitis with oral cephalosporins or macrolides have resulted in a similar bacteriological and clinical cure rate and better compliance compared with the conventional 10-day course. One hundred and thirty eight of 420 recruited patients had a positive culture for Streptococcus pyogenes and were randomly assigned to receive cefaclor (25 mg/kg/bid) for a 5-day (70 patients) or 10-day (68 patients) course. Patients were assessed clinically and bacteriologically 2-3 days after completing the course and followed up after 20-30 days. All 420 recruited patients belonged to a population of 2800 children who had been previously screened for a streptococcal carrier state to exclude carriers from final evaluation. Clinical cure and bacterial eradication was recorded in 92.8 and 92.6% of patients in groups A and B, respectively. Therefore, short-course therapy with cefaclor may offer an effective alternative treatment to conventional regimens, with potential for better compliance.

The clinical and bacteriological efficacy of ciprofloxacin was studied in three groups composed of 20 patients each, all of whom were affected by chronic otitis media in the acute stage. Ciprofloxacin was randomly administered according to the following schedules for 5 to 10 days: 250 mg orally twice a day (group A); 3 drops (250 micrograms/mL in saline solution) locally twice a day (group B); and both of the previous treatments twice a day (group C). A high percentage of favorable clinical response (100% and 95%) and bacteriological eradication (95% and 85%) was observed in groups B and C. A low percentage of patients (65% and 40%) were clinically and bacteriologically cured by the oral therapy (group A). No worsening of the audiometric and vestibular function was observed after local therapy. The results of this preliminary study suggest that the use of topical ciprofloxacin is effective in curing chronic otitis media, even when it is caused by Pseudomonas (47% of the total bacterial detections).

The present study was undertaken to compare the efficacy and safety of a new regimen of cefaclor (25 mg/kg BID) with amoxicillin-clavulanate and erythromycin TID at standard doses for the treatment of pediatric patients with acute pharyngotonsillitis (APT). A total of 673 children (age range, 2 to 12 years) with signs and symptoms of APT were enrolled; 245 of these children who had a positive throat culture for group A beta-hemolytic streptococci (GABHS) entered the study and were randomly assigned to receive cefaclor 25 mg/kg BID, amoxicillin-clavulanate 15 mg/kg TID, or erythromycin 15 mg/kg TID. A 10-day antibiotic course was prescribed for each patient. Clinical and bacteriologic responses were assessed at the end of treatment (day 10) and at the follow-up visit (day 30). All GABHS strains isolated from throat cultures were tested for in vitro sensitivity to the antibiotics used in the study. Side effects (mainly nausea) were rare and mild in each group and did not require discontinuation of therapy. No GABHS strain was resistant to cefaclor or to amoxicillin-clavulanate; 37.9% of the strains were resistant to erythromycin. The results indicated that cefaclor given BID seems to be as effective as amoxicillin-clavulanate given TID (cure rate, 91.9% and 90.5%, respectively) and more effective than erythromycin given TID (cure rate, 76.8%) for the treatment of patients with APT. Erythromycin resistance among GABHS is an emerging problem in many geographic areas.