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Case Review |
Clinical Photo of The Week |
A 55-year old female being managed for hyperthyroid
goitre was referred to ENT on account of bilateral otalgia of 3 years,
worse on the right ear, and associated with dizziness and diplopia and
intense right hemicranial pain. Otoscopy revealed reddish mass distending
the anterior 1/2 of the right TM. CT-scan revealed cerebellopontine angle
mass measuring 19.5 by 17.5 mm with erosion of adjacent petrous temporal
bone. MRI scan revealed the feature shown on this radiograph.
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What is the Diagnosis? |
1. 110th
American Academy of ORL, Head & Neck Surgery Annual Meeting & OTO EXPO, September
17-20, 2006; Toronto, Canada.
2.
42nd
South African ENT Congress joint meeting with the British Association of
Otolaryngology - Head & Neck Surgery, October 8 - 11, 2006; Cape Town,
South Africa. Click
HERE for More Info
3.
16th Annual oto-rhino-laryngological society of Nigeria (ORLSON) General Meeting
& Scientific Conference; November 22nd - 25th, 2006; Kaduna, Nigeria
4. Faculty of Otolaryngology, National Postgraduate Medical College of Nigeria, 2nd
Temporal Bone Dissection Course for Residents. Duration: 10th - 21st July (2
batches), 2006. Venue: Temporal Bone Room, LUTH, Idi-Araba, Nigeria. Contact:
balseze@yahoo.com or
aosomefun@yahoo.com.
Deadline for registration: July 3, 2006
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A common research question in medical, biological, or engineering
(failure time) research is to determine whether or not certain
continuous (independent) variables are correlated with the survival or
failure times. Introduced by D. R. Cox, the Proportional Hazards (PH)
model was developed in order to estimate the effects of different
covariates influencing the times-to-failure of a system and has been
widely employed for medical and biomedical research purposes. Cox's
model allows both the identification of prognostically relevant
variables and the quantification of their prognostic influence. These
characteristics make it a helpful tool for analysis as well as for
prognostication, and it has been employed in such diverse aspect of
otolaryngology as in
prognosticating the outcome in upper aerodigestive tract carcinomas.
This recent paper from Liverpool, UK (Jones et al,
European Archives of
Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, Issue: Volume 263, Number 6, 541 - 547
)stresses the superiority of artificial neural network over the Cox's
PH Model in prediction of survival of patients with Ca. Larynx Abstract:
The accepted method of modelling and predicting failure/survival, Cox’s
proportional hazards model, is theoretically inferior to neural network
derived models for analysing highly complex systems with large
datasets. A blinded comparison of the neural network versus the Cox’s
model in predicting survival utilising data from 873 treated patients
with laryngeal cancer. These were divided randomly and equally into a
training set and a study set and Cox’s and neural network models
applied in turn. Data were then divided into seven sets of binary
covariates and the analysis repeated. Overall survival was not
significantly different on Kaplan–Meier plot, or with either test
model. Although the network produced qualitatively similar results to
Cox’s model it was significantly more sensitive to differences in
survival curves for age and N stage. We propose that neural networks
are capable of prediction in systems involving complex interactions
between variables and non-linearity.
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Journal Watch :Head
& Neck Paragangliomas in Senegal, Tall et al,
2005
1. Reviewers
wanted for otolaryngology news journal's watch page. If you are an
Otolaryngologist in Africa and will like to be our journal reviewer, please feel
free to email orl-mailer@otolaryngologyinafrica.net
2. DODA
2006, capable of advanced hearing measure, and also paediatric hearing
assessment is being developed. If you requested for and got a free copy of DODA,
you may also look out for this latest version dubbed DODA-i, as well as for an
additional page on outcome of hearing assessment using DODA.
3. A subweb of this site, dedicated to online
publications of otorhinolaryngological grand round presentations across
Institutions all over Africa will soon take off. The subweb once active can be
accessed at http://www.otolaryngologyinafrica.net/grandround/ . Watch out, and please take
advantage of this to send in your grand round presentations. Also watch out for
online discussion forum for discussion of issues concerning otolaryngologists,
but not really of clinical nature at
http://otolaryngologyinafrica.net/discussionforum/
Till Next Week,
Biodun
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This is a free email newsletter circulating to Otolaryngologists in Africa, and
interested Otolaryngologists elsewhere. If you know anyone interested in
receiving this free newsletter, feel free to forward a copy to such person or
encourage them to email orl-mailer@otolaryngologyinafrica.net for free subscription
© Copyright Dr 'Biodun Olusesi, 2005 - 2006
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