RESUMEN
Although chronic sinusitis widely affects the adult population, the treatments currently used did not always satisfactorily solve the symptoms. Traditional therapy with steroids and antibiotics presents risks and benefits and the new drugs, i.e., monoclonal antibody, are valid solutions despite being quite expensive. Natural molecules could be a valid treatment that combines good efficacy and low price. We conducted a case -control study to evaluate the benefit of an oral supplement with Ribes nigrum, Boswellia serrata, Bromelain and Vitamin D on chronic sinusitis symptoms. 60 patients were randomly assigned to one of the three groups: control using nasal steroids only, treatment 1 using nasal steroid and 1 dose of the oral supplement for 30 days and treatment 2 in which patients used nasal steroid and two oral supplement doses daily for 15 days. Conditions of the nasal mucosa and a blood sample (WBC, IgE and CRP) were analyzed at T0, T1 (15 days after treatment) and T2 (30 days after treatment. Patients treated with the supplement improved their nasal findings (hyperemia of mucosa and rhinorrhea) with statistically significant differences from the control. Our preliminary data suggest that the addition of supplement containing Ribes nigrum, Boswellia serrata, Vitamin D and Bromelain to the traditional local therapy (nasal spray with cortisone) can be a supporting therapy to modulate the local inflammation in the nose in patients affected by chronic sinusitis.
RESUMEN
An extremely infrequent episode of nasopharyngeal actinomycosis associated with squamous adenocarcinoma occurred in an HIV-infected male patient with a previous diagnosis of AIDS, treated with combined antiretroviral therapy taken with insufficient adherence, such that a satisfactory immune system recovery (as expressed by a CD4 lymphocyte count persistently above 400 cells/mcl), contrasted with a low-level persistence of detectable HIV viraemia, and enlarged genotypic resistance mutations. Interestingly, a number of local and specific risk factors for both infectious and neoplastic disorders were recognized by healthcare staff (tobacco smoke, long-term inhalatory substance abuse, in particular cocaine, and semi-professional mushroom-truffle hunting, including evaluation by systematic smelling). Despite appropriate and timely diagnostic assessment carried out with repeated, combined computerized tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, and fiberoptic rhinoscopy with biopsy and histopathologic studies, the final diagnosis of a combined dual infectious-neoplastic pathology occurred only after a demolishing surgical intervention and subsequent pathology studies. Despite proper antimicrobial therapy, and an associated radiotherapy and cytotoxic chemotherapy schedule, rapid dissemination of multiple secondary lesions to the brain rapidly led to our patient's death. The imaging and histopathological diagnostics of the dual illnesses of our HIV-infected patient, and its therapeutic and outcome features, are presented and discussed on the basis of the evidence from the available literature. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first described case of actinomycosis associated with a local, underlying squamous cell adenocarcinoma of the same ear, nose, and throat district in either HIV-infected or HIV-non-infected subjects.