Things aren't always what they seem at first

Now that 4D IMRT is all the buzz, we are seeing more and more studies on the volume changes of tumors througout the course of chemoradiation. This is imaging science at its best, monitoring progress and titrating treatment according to burden of disease. Perhaps we can learn something in managing other pathologies; like infection for example.

Weekly volume and dosimetric changes during chemoradiotherapy with intensity-modulated radiation therapy for head and neck cancer: a prospective observational study. (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20338474)
Bhide SA, Davies M, Burke K, McNair HA, Hansen V, Barbachano Y, El-Hariry IA, Newbold K, Harrington KJ, Nutting CM.
Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys. 2010 Apr;76(5):1360-8.

The Master speaks

When it comes to surgical management of NPC, William Wei always has the last word.

So, it's good that he issues refreshers like this one to keep our management strategies abreast with latest developments.

This appears as the article 'Current management strategy of nasopharyngeal carcinoma' in Clin Exp Otorhinolaryngol. 2010 Mar;3(1):1-12
(http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20379395)

Other review articles of relevance are linked as well.
(http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?db=pubmed&cmd=link&linkname=pubmed_pubmed&uid=20379395)

New in OSA

This is music to my ears.

Authors Xu H, Huang W, Yu L, and Chen L. published in Acta Otolaryngolica this week an article entitled 'Sound spectral analysis of snoring sound and site of obstruction in obstructive sleep apnea syndrome.'
(http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20377505)

They showed objectively what we have known intuitively, that the higher the obstruction the lower the pitch of noise generated. In fact they found that lower obstructions had a greater proportion of >800Hz and >2000Hz first-snore sounds than higher obstructions.

This confirms the way we clinically differentiate stertor and stridor, and might even spawn a new wave of polysomnogram parameters.