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The recurrent or chronic "non specific pharyngitis" is one of the most common complaints of adults treated in an outpatient setting and it is a disease without a certain aetiology, but with many probable causes which can be of bacterial or viral nature, but incidence of atypical microorganism infection, such as Chlamydia trachomatis (Ct), Mycoplasma hoininis (Mh) and Ureaplasina urealyticum (Uu) is believed to be on the rise. The increase is correlated above all to sexual behavior and to diffusion of new microbiological diagnostic methods, such as PCR. From 840 patients affected by recurrent episodes of chronic pharyngeal phlogosis and examined from 2006 to 2008, we selected 67 patients, 37 women and 30 men. On the basis of molecular and cultural analysis, 85.07% of patients were positive to Ct, and 89.55% were positive to Mollicutes (Mh+Uu), showing a vast overlapping of co-infections of Uu and Mh. Our data indicated a higher rate of infection by atypical microorganism in selected patients affected by chronic pharyngitis. It is important to suspect this aetiology during recurrent chronic pharingitis because patients with these oropharingeal infections, must be considered as carriers and the correct treatment, only possible after exact diagnosis, is above all necessary to prevent fearful complications in other body areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Otitis Media with Effusion (OME) is the most common disease of the middle ear. Different factors play a role in its pathogenesis, such as viral and bacterial infections, allergy, morphological and functional changes of nasal passage, Eustachian Tube (ET), and cleft palate. This study aims to investigate the Helicobacter Pylori presence in middle ear effusions from patients with OME through RT-PCR and compare our results with results from other published articles., Methods: The study was carried out from October 2007 to February 2009, in the Department of Otorhinolaryngology of SS. Annunziata Hospital, Chieti, Italy. 132 consecutive patients with OME were included in the study. Fluid in the middle ear was assessed for the presence of Helicobacter Pylori through RT-PCR., Results: 132 consecutive patients with OME were included in the study. The patients were between ages 8 and 78 (median 50); 62 were males (47%), 70 were females (53%), and 53 patients had bilateral OME (40%). 185 samples were collected from 132 patients. Of the 185 samples taken from the ear, 21 (11.35%) were not adequate for the correct execution of the DNA extraction procedure. The remaining 167 samples, subjected to RT-PCR, did not show in any case an increase in fluorescence linked to the FAM fluorophore, thus demonstrating the complete absence of Helicobacter Pylori., Conclusion: Based on the results obtained, we can affirm that although a third of the cases of OME is correlated to the presence of reflux, Helicobacter Pylori does not seem to play any role in the pathophysiology of OME as it cannot be found in endo-tympanic exudate., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no competing interests., (© 2021 The Authors.)

The Otorhinolaryngologist (ENT) frequently has to deal with OSA or suspicious OSA patients and undergone polysomnography (PSG) or portable monitoring (PM) and should be confident about the quality and consistency of the polysomnographic diagnosis. The main polysomnographic traces compressed in a unique epoch, defined as compact PSG/PM (CP), could represent an efficient tool to confirm the quality of PSG/PM Sleep Breathing Disorders diagnosis. This is a validation's study of a CP interpretation's method, analyzing the learning curve, the level of diagnostic accuracy, and the inter-operator agreement in interpreting the CP pattern between a group of ENT specialists not skilled in PSG/PM scoring, but managing SBD patients during daily practice. Seven ENT specialists have been enrolled in the study. 50 CP traces (ranging from normal to all main SBD patterns) have been showed to each participant for the interpretation and scoring process, before and after a 2-h theoretical-practical interactive lesson, focusing on the recognition of the four main oximetric patterns on CP traces (normal, phasic, prolonged, and overlap patterns)., Results: before and after the theoretical-practical interactive lesson, the whole diagnostic accuracy in interpreting the 50 CP has been reported improved from 0.12 to 0.80 (median 0.52) to 0.82-0.96 (median 0.92) (p = 0.006) and the inter-scorers' agreement showed a kappa value increased from of 0.18 to 0.75 (p < 0.0001). A complete clinical diagnostic evaluation is essential in OSA patients and the ENT specialist should be concerned to verify if the patient, suitable for surgical therapy, is affected really by an isolated form of OSA. The CP interpretation allows a checking of the proper nosographic SBD framework and could be significantly important for all ENT specialists not skilled in PSG/PM scoring, but managing SBD patients during daily practice. The data reported in our validation's study showed that the CP interpretation's method is easy to apply, with a rapid learning curve. The level of diagnostic accuracy is high with a high inter-scorer agreement in interpreting the CP patterns.